Hardware Simulator Error

[idrach55]

Hello All,

I am currently up to building the RAM modules for the Hack Platform in HDL. I have so far completed
up to Ram4K and can confirm that they work as intended in runs in the simulator. Yet after writing Ram4K.hdl, it seems that it cannot load into the hardware simulator. The simulator shows "Loading Chip..." and hangs for a few seconds, when the program becomes usable again the "Loading Chip..." is still there and the chip has not been loaded. As I am on a Mac, I have inspected my Terminal's output and apparently the program is encountering a "java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space" error. In editing my Ram4K.hdl, I am able to get it to load without issue when I add only 1 Ram512 to the part list. If I add 2 or more (as is necessary), the simulator encounters the error and cannot load. Any and all help is appreciated.
As a note, I have experienced no problems with the hardware simulator until this point.

- Isaac

[cadet1620]

The suspect that the problem is that you are trying to build your RAM4K in the same directory where you have your smaller RAMs.  Because each RAM in the hierarchy is 8 times the size of the previous RAM, they get huge rather quickly and exceed the capability of the simulator.

For this reason there are two subdirectories under project/03.  project/03/1 is where you build the memory chips up to RAM64.  project/03/2 is where you build RAM512 and larger chips.  Make sure that there are no HDL files for the smaller chips in the project/03/2 directory.

--Mark

[idrach55]

Ah, I understand. I was able to setup the directory system you are referring to. Yet now I am receiving an error regarding my code is referencing Ram64 while the built-in file is named RAM64. I could just change the name of the chip to match the built-in one, yet is there anyway to reference the chip I coded that is in the other folder, or would that just bog down the simulator because it won't be running the built-in Java code?

[cadet1620]

The TECS tools expect to be running on a case sensitive filesystem. I've had ocassional problems on Windows when I've capitalized things inconsistently.

It would be safest to to convert to the RAMxxx names.  At a minimum you need to change Ram64 to RAM64 in your Ram512 so that the built-in part will work. Your Ram4K should be OK using your Ram512.

--Mark