Archive for the ‘SoC Design and Validation’ Category
Wednesday, February 28th, 2018
When should we use the term “Vision for Everything”, as vision-based applications are entering various industries? It’s been a few years since the emergence of Embedded Vision and we see that it’s being used in a wide range of applications including Security, Medical, Smart homes, Robotics, Transportations, Automotive Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Augmented Reality (AR).
This is the first in a series of blogs explaining what you need to know to start designing Embedded Vision applications which can be used in ADAS, from choosing the right device and tools to demystifying the vision algorithms used in automotive applications and how to implement them into FPGAs.
ADAS consists of two main parts, vision and sensor fusion. Cameras used in a smart car can provide the information such as object detection, classification and tracking. However, they don’t provide the distance between the vehicle and obstacles needed to prevent a collision. To do that, sensors such as LIDAR or RADAR come to play.
In this series of blogs, we will mainly focus on the vision side of the ADAS; but will cover sensor fusion in the future. The main goal of this series of blogs is to give an in-depth knowledge of Aldec’s complete ADAS reference design which includes 360-Degree Surrounding View, Driver Drowsiness Detection and Smart-Rear View.
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Tags: acceleration, ARM, embedded, FPGA, hardware, verilog, VHDL, Xilinx
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Thursday, January 25th, 2018
 A high-performance router is an absolute must if you want to run a high-traffic network in which different devices need to transfer and receive data as fast as possible. A router with a powerful processor and sufficient local memory reduces data hiccups and minimizes message loading and buffering times. But is that enough?
Because of the huge amount of data that people now generate – combined with the wealth of communication protocols, such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, SFP, QSFP – high-performance, hardware re-programmable routers are becoming popular. That hardware re-programmability is being delivered through FPGAs, and utilizing one as the main ‘processor’ on the router makes it easy to add or modify desired modules such as encryption and compression.
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Tags: acceleration, design, digital, embedded, Emulation, FPGA, hardware, industrial, prototyping, SoC, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, Xilinx
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Tuesday, October 17th, 2017
 Creativity and innovation, which lead the society to success, rest on the foundational institutions such as schools and universities. They provide fertile soil to seed, grow and flourish enterprises. To harvest more within an industry, the ecosystem needs to be enriched where the seeds are grown. Considering that the university’s courses are the nutrition to student, they need to be designed in a productive manner as they will provide the next generation of engineers. By providing the necessary platform in addition to the rich and informative tutorials, the quality of the input information for students would be assured. Particularly in the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering, it is important that students get as much hands on experience as possible, and tackle design challenges – such as HW/SW co-design and co-verification – before entering the job market; for their own benefit as well as the industry as a whole.
In this blog, you will become familiar with the TySOM Education kit (TySOM EDU) package designed for the university courses related to hardware design and embedded system design researches.
The TySOM EDU contains a TySOM embedded development board, Riviera-PRO advanced hardware simulator and informative tutorials and reference designs. Although it is possible to choose any development board from the TySOM embedded development board family, the TySOM-1A-7Z010 would be the most cost-effective solution for most university projects.
TySOM-1A-7Z010 (ZynqTM) is a ready-to-use and feature-rich embedded development board which provides the required peripherals to tackle both basic and advanced Zynq-based projects. The XC7Z010 is based on the Xilinx® All Programmable System-on-Chip (SoC) architecture, which integrates a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with Xilinx 7-series Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) logic. Coupling the device to a rich set of peripherals for connectivity, communication and multimedia, makes this board ideal for university projects requiring HW/SW co-design. For the rest of this article, visit the Aldec Design and Verification Blog.
Tags: co-simulation, design, digital, embedded, FPGA, HDL, prototyping, Riviera-PRO, simulation, SoC, university, Xilinx
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Friday, August 25th, 2017
 The history of System-on-Chip (SoC)
Do we prefer to have a small electronic device or a larger one? The answer will often be “the smaller one”. However, before the commercialization of small radios, many people were interested in having big radios for the extravagance. Subsequently, at the beginning of the emergence of compact radios, those who preferred the flamboyance of large radios refused using compact radios. Slowly, but surely, the overwhelming benefits of owning a more compact radio led to the proliferation of smaller devices. These days the progression of the technology enables cutting-edge companies to encapsulate different parts of a system into increasingly smaller devices, all the way down to a single chip, which added the System-on-Chip (SoC) concept to the electronics world. By way of an example of a SoC, I will explain the Zynq-7000 all-programmable SoC. It consists of two hard processors, programmable logic (PL), ADC blocks and many other features all in one silicon chip.
Before the invention of the Zynq, processors were coupled with a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which made communication between the Programmable Logic (PL) and Processing System (PS) complicated. The Zynq architecture, as the latest generation of Xilix’s all-programmable System-on-Chip (SoC) families, combines a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 with a traditional (FPGA). The interface between the different elements within the Zynq architecture is based on the Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI) standard, which provides for high bandwidth and low latency connections.
Before implementing the ARM processor inside the Zynq device, users were using a soft core processor such as Xilinx’s Microblaze. The main advantage of using Microblaze was, and remains, the flexibility of the processor instances within a design. On the other hand, the inclusion of hard processor in Zynq delivers significant performance improvements. Also, by simplifying the system to a single chip, the overall cost and physical size of the device are reduced.
Zynq Design Flow
The design flow for the Zynq architecture has some steps in common with a regular FPGA. The first stage is to define the specifications and requirements of the system. Next, during the system design stage, the different tasks (functions) are assigned to implementation in either PL or PS which is called task partitioning. This stage is important because the performance of the overall system will depend on tasks/functions being assigned for implementation in the most appropriate technology: hardware or software. For the rest of this article, visit the Aldec Design and Verification Blog.
Tags: ARM, embedded, FPGA, hardware, SoC and ASIC Prototyping
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Thursday, June 1st, 2017
 The SoC domination observed so far in the ASIC industry is coming to the FPGA world and changing the way FPGAs are used and FPGA projects are verified. The latest SoC FPGA devices offer a very interesting alternative of reprogrammable logic powered with the microprocessor, usually ARM. With new types of devices there is always a need for extended verification methodology. SoC ASIC has so far been the main pioneer for advanced and highly scalable verification methodologies. Due to the complexity and size of such projects, ASIC labs were actually driving EDA vendors to deliver verification solutions for their projects.
With the growth of these projects, hardware emulation became a common tool which was then integrated with virtual platforms and labeled ‘hybrid co-emulation’. This hybrid solution offered a single verification platform for both software and hardware teams. Such platforms allow the performance of verification at the SoC level, allowing the entire project to be verified before the final design code is actually written and available for example, to perform the prototyping.
Hybrid emulation allows the connection of the work environment of software teams using virtual platforms with the hardware engineers using emulators. Why is this so important? The issue is, until now the software portion of the project worked on the virtual models, separate from the hardware portion. Connecting these two domains allows for testing of the project at the SoC level instead of the subsystems level, which in turn increases the coverage of testing and enables the detection of problems much earlier.
Figure 1 – Hybrid co-emulation verification system.
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Tags: Active-HDL, ARM, asic, FPGA, FPGAs embedded processors, Hardware Emulation, Hardware-Assisted Verification, high level synthesis, RTL simulator kernel efficiency, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, soc design verification, verification
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Monday, April 10th, 2017
 Most everyone would agree how important FPGA prototyping is to test and validate an IP, sub-system, or a complete SoC design. Before the design is taped-out it can be validated at speeds near real operating conditions with physical peripherals and devices connected to it instead of simulation models. At the same time, these designs are not purely hardware, but these days incorporate a significant amount of the software stack and so co-verification of hardware and software is put at high importance among other requirements in the verification plan.
However, preparing a robust FPGA prototype is not a trivial task. It requires strong hardware skills and spending a lot of time in the lab to configure and interconnect all required peripheral devices with an FPGA base board. Even more difficult is to create a comprehensive test scenario which contains procedures to configure various peripherals. Programming hundreds of registers in proper sequence and then reacting on events, interrupts, and checking status registers is a complex process. The task which is straightforward during simulation, where full control over design is assured, becomes extremely hard to implement in an FPGA prototype. Facing this challenge, verification engineers often connect a microprocessor or microcontroller daughter card to the main FPGA board. The IP or SoC subsystem you are designing will be connected with some kind of CPU anyhow, so this way seems natural. Having a CPU connected to the design implemented in an FPGA facilitates creating programmatically reconfigurable test scenarios and enables test automation. Moreover, the work of software developers can be now reused as the software stack with device drivers can become a part of the initialization procedure in the hardware test.. The software can become a part of the initialization procedure in the hardware test. If that makes sense to you, then why not use an FPGA board that has all you need – both FPGA and the CPU?
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Tags: Active-HDL, ARM, asic, co-simulation, design, FPGA, fpga prototyping solution, hardware, prototyping, SoC, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, soc design, Xilinx
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Thursday, April 6th, 2017
 It’s been a busy season for Aldec. The weather has warmed here in the desert and as the trees and greenery enliven in spring, Aldec has also been bursting with activity. From DVCon to the International Symposium on FPGAs in the US to Embedded World and CTIC in Europe, there have been some exciting developments from Aldec in verification, embedded systems, and DO-254.
These major events and conferences have been a great time to provide some updates on the latest Aldec endeavors and to provide an in-person look at the capability of our tools.
The DVCon U.S. Conference and Exhibition held in San Jose, California, holds a special place in my heart because it was the first industry conference I attended after starting my career in EDA. Every year I enjoy returning in order to see the latest verification advancements and to speak with those who are hard at work trying to improve verification efforts. Portable stimulus was a hot topic and it seemed like emulation was growing in popularity. This year we brought our Hardware Emulation Solutions (HES™) so that people could get an in-person look at our hardware. We showed off the speed benefits of emulation over traditional simulation by hooking up a UVM testbench to an in-house network-on-chip design running in our FPGA boards. As design sizes increase, I think emulation will become a more widely adopted solution to the simulation bottleneck.
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Tags: aviation, embedded, FPGA, hardware, SoC and ASIC Prototyping
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Tuesday, October 4th, 2016
The Internet of Things (IoT) has become the main topic in the technological world; it seems everybody is talking about it as the next wave in electronic systems. The scope of the IoT is so wide now, some have suggested changing the name to the Internet of Everything. We now expect all devices we use in our personal and professional lives to be connected, starting from the obvious ones in smartphones and computers, going through wearables, smart home and security devices, to industrial automation applications, and of course automotive electronics.
Creating devices for the IoT is a big challenge for engineering teams at the design and verification levels, but also at the application and data levels. As all those devices (already estimated to number in the billions, and growing) start generating their data, IoT gateways and infrastructure will need to experience a new revolution. Clouds and data farms will become a common medium not only for data storage and message exchange, but also for processing and analytics which will require much more specialized computing power.
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Tags: Active-HDL, fpga acceleration, FPGA Design, internet of things, programmable soc, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, tysom board, tysom gateway, xilinx zynq soc
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Wednesday, August 17th, 2016
 Today’s article is authored by Brandon Wade, Aldec FAE Intern. Brandon is currently working on his B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is set to graduate in 2017. His interests include processor architectures, and the logic of these hardware designs. As a field application engineer intern, Brandon has worked extensively with Aldec’s own simulation software such as Active-HDL and Riviera-PRO.
When part of a team, your group can become more capable than a single individual, but only if your team can work together and communicate effectively. Having members of a group talk over each other leads to nothing but a cacophony, and nothing gets done. For this reason protocols need to be established, such as letting others speak without interruption, or facing those you are addressing. The same is necessary with electronics, especially with system on chip (SoC) designs.
The protocol used by many SoC today is AXI, or Advanced eXtensible Interface, and is part of the ARM Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture (AMBA) specification. It is especially prevalent in Xilinx’s Zynq devices, providing the interface between the processing system and programmable logic sections of the chip.
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Tags: Aldec, ARM, embedded, TySOM
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Tuesday, May 31st, 2016
 I moved to Austin a little over a year ago, and have quickly learned that this city is a progressive blue island in a sea of red. That’s the conventional wisdom, and most of the time it holds up.
But there’s one area where this Texas city feels right at home in the rest of the Lone Star State, and that’s the cuisine. Go into the almost any trendy restaurant, and it’s possible to order a meal that has bacon in everything. Whether it’s the Paleo influence, or the craft food movement, or a remnant of good old Southern cooking, there are a lot of meaty options.
That’s great, you say, except I don’t care how ethically sourced the pork is. Dude, I’m a vegetarian.
Never fear. If you plan to visit our fair city for our industry’s upcoming Design Automation Conference (DAC 2016), rest assured you can find great vegetarian dining options in and around downtown Austin. And while UBER may have left Austin, you can still walk or catch a cab from your hotel or the Convention Center to visit these great restaurants (scroll down for map).
Mainstream Options: You’re a Vegetarian, But the Rest of Your Party Wants Meat
 A. The Flagship Whole Foods, one mile west of downtown Austin, is a great place for a working lunch. I know, you’re thinking, You want me to eat at a grocery store? This is not just any grocery store, my friend. It is a food bazaar that will absolutely blow you away. Rows of tempting salad bars allow you to compose your own meal, but there are also vegan and vegetarian options at just about every food counter and a pleasant roof-top terrace where you can enjoy your food. Whole Foods Market. 525 North Lamar, Austin, Texas. 512.542.2200. $
B. 24 Diner, like many Austin restaurants, was featured on the Food Network, with the result that this trendy spot can be mobbed. Its allure is comforting food served all night long, with plenty of vegetarian options, like veggie hash, mushroom and veggie burgers, and a variety of tempting salads. 24 Diner. 600 Lamar. 512.472.5400. $$
C. I love the intimacy of Koriente, a Korean health food restaurant with garden dining tucked into a little warren of shops and restaurants at the east end of Sixth Street, right before you hit the I 35 overpass. It was founded by a mom who hated to cook and wanted to make a place where other moms could bring their families for nourishing, healthy, delicious food. Most of the entrees are vegetable based; for a couple extra bucks, add meat and eggs to the mix. But you might want to walk over from your hotel. Parking is at a minimum here. Koriente. 621 East 7th. 512.275.0852. $
D. The Blue Dahlia Bistro is right across the highway in the heart of East Austin, still walking distance from downtown. The restaurant’s promise is that you can “relax and feel like you are in the European countryside.” That might be a tiny stretch, but I have to admit — they do have a truly cozy and inviting outdoor space. They serve yummy French-inspired dishes and have a good selection of vegetarian options, including an all-day breakfast menu. The Blue Dahlia.1115 East 11th Street. 512.542.9542. $
Hardcore and Retro: You Won’t Find Meat on Any of These Plates
E. If you’re looking for a glimpse of the Austin of Slackerfame, venture a few miles north to the University neighborhood of Hyde Park, where Mother’s Cafe has been dishing up family style vegetarian and vegan cuisine since 1980. The restaurant has spruced up with a recent makeover, but they haven’t really changed their menu. There’s nowhere else in town where you can order Mushroom Stroganoff or BBQ Tofu. Ask to be seated in the Garden Room, an Austin tradition. Mother’s Cafe. 4215 Duval. 512.451.3994. $
F. Casa de Luz, located about a half mile from downtown, in the hippest part of East Austin, describes itself as Austin’s “only all-organic dining and community center.” They take good nutrition very seriously here; even the drinking water that serve is filtered to remove fluoride. Each day, they prepare a different menu from scratch, using plant-based foods. That means most of the food they serve is vegan as well. Casa de Luz. 1701 Toomey Road. 512).476.2535. $
G. Mr. Natural lets you enjoy Tex-Mex cuisine without worrying that someone is sticking lard in those beans. The East Austin restaurant is 100 percent vegetarian, and the place also includes a juice bar and a bakery that has won several awards, including “Best Tres Leches” from the Austin Chronicle.That is really saying something: the recipe is vegan. Mr. Natural. 1901 Cesar Chavez. 512.477.5228. $
H. There aren’t a lot of 100 percent vegan options in the Weird City, but East Austin Counter Culturefits the bill. Whenever possible, the chefs here try to use ethically sourced and organic ingredients, and their menu is a combination of classic vegetarian dishes like Lentil Loaf and Mac and Cheeze (the “cheese” made from cashews) and curiosity-inspiring fare such as the Jackfruit BBQ Sandwich. They also serve gluten-free pizza. Counter Culture.2337 East Cesar Chavez. 512.524.1540.
Quick and Trendy Veggie Bites
I. You can’t talk about food in Austin without at least a nod to one of the city’s many food trucks. Arlo’s is the place to go downtown for a late night vegan burger or seiten “chicken” patty. You want fries with that? No problem. Arlo’s. 900 Red River. 512.840.1600. $
J. And for dessert? Lick Honest Ice Creams offers a variety of “weird” flavors — I love the roasted beet and fresh mint — including some vegan options. The staff lets folks sample as many flavors as they like, so the line might move slowly!, Suite 1135. 512.363.5622. $
Well there you have it. You see, if you’re a vegetarian or looking to have a meal with vegetarian colleague or client, Austin has you covered.
I hope you’ll find these tips useful. If you have any other questions about our fair city, please stop by and see me at DAC Booth #619. If you’d like to learn more about Aldec’s Scalable Emulation Solutions or ASIC Verification Spectrum, I hope you’ll register for a one-on-one presentation at DAC, or call +1-702-990-4400 or email us at sales@aldec.com.
For the rest of this article, visit the Aldec Design and Verification Blog.
Tags: asic, Emulation, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, verification
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