Note: @Extension Media, (2016). This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission Extension Media for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published February 1, 2106 in Embedded Systems Design http://www.extensionmedia.com

Booting an OS such as Linux gets the designer to the starting line, but how does the real work commence for complex multicore designs destined for gaming, digital signage, and more?

When software developers hear the word emulation, they often think software emulators and not hardware emulation. That’s changing, though, as the versatile hardware emulator gains a more widespread reputation for being able to ensure that the embedded system software works correctly with the underlying hardware. It’s happening as it becomes a shared resource between hardware and software teams to accelerate hardware/software integration ahead of first silicon. As it should, especially when the ratio of software developers is greater than hardware engineers on a chip project.

(more…)

If I were to study the astrological charts for the week of February 29, I’d see many of the planets aligning around DVCon, the center of our verification universe. As always, it will be a special week chock full of topics related to verification. Tutorials, paper sessions, panels and exhibits should keep all attendees energized as they learn about advances in technologies, methodologies and deployment modes to make their professional lives easier.

Our verification tool universe keeps expanding and will be on full display at DVCon. Lately, I’ve been hearing reports that “apps” may be coming to hardware emulation … and why not? What’s good enough for software should be good for hardware as well, especially when it will save time, improve performance and help a verification engineer avoid risk.

As we’ve learned, in emulation, hardware alone is no longer the differentiating factor and, hence, the introduction of apps. As the apps transformed a mobile phone into a smart phone, so would hardware with an operating system running specific applications transform a hardware emulation platform into a verification hub and drive new use models, greatly reducing risk and improving performance.

(more…)