The Syms class can contain a very large number of VeriltedScope
instances if `--vpi` is used, all of which need a call to the default
constructor in the constructor of the Syms class. This can lead to very
long compilation times, even without optimization on some compilers.
To avoid the constructor calls, hold VeriltedScope via pointers in the
Syms class, and explicitly new and delete them in the Syms
constructor/destructor. These explicit new/delte can then be
automatically split up into sub functions when the Syms
constructor/destructor become large.
Regarding run-time performance, this should have no significant effect,
most interactions are either during construction/destruction of the Syms
object, or are via pointers already. The one place where we used to
refer to VerilatedScope instances is when emitting an AstScopeName for
things like $display %m. For those there will be an extra load
instruction at run-time, which should not make a big difference.
Patch 3 of 3 to fix long compile times of the Syms module in some
scenarios.
Geza Lore
8ad8d4f807