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Technical Papers

The technical papers and other resources listed below provide a deeper look into how virtual system prototypes help to solve design and verification issues in embedded systems design.

The Latest Technical Papers

Technical Papers Archive

1-SOURCE™ Virtual Prototyping for Embedded Systems Design

Driven by market convergence in wireless, consumer, and automotive electronics, silicon embedded systems are experiencing massive growth in complexity. By every measure—gate count, number of embedded processors, amount of embedded software, on-chip memory—the complexity and diffi culty of designing and verifying silicon embedded systems has risen to the point where true system level design methodologies are mission-critical for the successful delivery of leading-edge products. (White Paper July 2006)

Muscular Methods for Mammoth Designs

This paper first considers significant technical trends in embedded systems design. Conventional embedded design and verification techniques are then reviewed. Finally, the concept of architecture-driven embedded systems design using virtual system prototyping is presented and discussed. (White Paper March 2005)

Virtual Systems Prototyping Ensures Reusable Design Platforms

This paper describes the traditional, sequential development environment and its shortcomings with respect to true concurrent hardware and software development and verification; outlines the concurrent development process and the use of virtual systems prototyping; describes a virtual systems prototype in depth; and shows how a virtual systems prototyping development process helps to ensure the business goals of maximizing time to market through platform-based design. The paper concludes with a look at several examples of projects that have benefited from the virtual systems prototyping development process. (White Paper December 2004)

System-level Debugging in a Multi-core Wireless Virtual System Prototype

This paper presents a method for system-level debugging of a multi-core system using a virtual system prototype, which allows a cycle-accurate simulation of a complete system to execute in real time on a PC. This is a much faster solution than ISS-based simulation. Complete system-level single-stepping can be performed, providing the debug mode a level of timing accuracy that matches the real-world setup. Further, virtual system prototypes provide flexibility during development by enabling developers to experiment quickly and accurately over multiple system setups and scenarios. An example of a multi-core wireless system containing two ARM processors and a StarCore DSP demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach. (White Paper November 2004)

Design Process Changes Enabling Rapid Development

This paper addresses the electronic development of embedded systems design in the wireless industry and compares it to the electronic development in the automotive industry. (Convergence 2004 paper)

Automotive Electronics: Model-Based Development with Virtual Prototypes

Today's automobiles contain many complex electronic systems, each of which may incorporate a large number of electronic control units (ECUs) performing a single function, communicating through layers of networks. Even as complexity increases, embedded systems design cycles are under pressure to shorten, so that manufacturers can deliver the latest in safety, fuel efficiency and convenience to consumers in a highly competitive industry. At the same time, quality and reliability remain of paramount concern. The challenges of managing these factors - complex technology, time-to-market and quality - are dictating a new approach to automotive electronics, yet one that is as old as the automotive industry itself. (White Paper July 2004)

The System Engineering Inflection Point

The advent of high-performance, cycle-accurate, virtual platforms are permanently changing the landscape of embedded systems development. The increasing use of virtual platforms and the declining use of hardware prototypes define an inflection point that characterizes a paradigm shift in embedded systems design. (White Paper January 2004)

Software-rich Chips

Compelling semiconductor economics are driving the growth of software-rich chips — systems implemented using increasingly large quantities of embedded software for their differentiation. This paper details how VaST's leading technologies enable the transition from a chip-centric view of system design, to a software-centric view of system design, where chip design is regarded as the creation of an efficient platform for running the software. (White Paper October 2002)

Economics of Software-Rich Chips

This paper is intended for senior managers in the system, embedded software and semiconductor industries. It shows that the trend in embedded systems design towards software-rich chips is a consequence of the economic drive of Moore's Law. It examines the economic trends and looks at some approaches to how to take advantage of them. (White Paper October 2002)

Engineering Systems on a Chip

The Bloody Revolution in Tools, Methodologies and Power. (IEEE Spectrum article, 2001)

Designing Systems on Chip

Designing System on a Chip Products using Systems Engineering Tools. (ISCAS paper, 1999)

Systems Engineering: Virtual Processor Modeling

Virtual Processor Modeling (VPM) is key to systems simulation while retaining performance and accuracy. (1999)

The Advent of the Virtual Processor Model

The need to promulgate a systems-level vision (EE Times Article, 1999).

Mixed Technology Systems

Systems simulation methodologies must be able to cope with a mixture of modeling techniques. (1998)

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