Simulating a Virtual Platform with Carbon SoC Designer Plus Click to enlarge

Complete Virtual Platform Development Solution

Carbon SoC Designer Plus is a complete solution for the development, execution, and analysis of virtual system platforms. Carbon SoC Designer Plus delivers value throughout the entire design lifecycle, and provides a virtual platform for:

• System model development and IP integration
• Accurate architectural analysis
• Pre-silicon hardware/software integration

Rapid Development of Virtual Platforms

SoC Designer Plus makes virtual platform creation easy. SoC Designer Plus' easy-to-use GUI allows users to rapidly assemble models to create your virtual platform.

Because the models are the key to creating a virtual platform, Carbon SoC Designer Plus supports a wide range of models in variety of formats including:

• Flexible SystemC model support for easy creation and integration
• High performance cycle-accurate and implementation-accurate models compiled by Carbon Model Studio
• Verilog and VHDL co-simulation with leading RTL Simulators
• Spirit IP-Xact support for easy model exchange

Platform debug

Assembling system models is only part of the solution: the key lies in the ability to execute the platform and examine the behavior of the system and analyze key metrics. SoC Designer Plus provides debug interfaces tailored for both hardware and software engineers. You have full visibility and execution control of your model. Software engineers are able to view code, set breakpoints, and examine registers and memories. Hardware engineers can examine signals, dump waveforms, and trace execution through the system. Run-time performance profiling gives you immediate feedback on system behavior during execution.

Architectural Analysis

Development and analysis of system architecture requires the accuracy to model key system characteristics, especially with complex bus architectures and multi-core communications models. SoC Designer Plus provides mix of the accuracy, performance, and flexibility to model complex systems and perform the analysis required to make critical design decisions. Instead of ad-hoc model approximations and paper-and-pencil calculations, architects can now prove their design assumptions before a major commitment has been made to the design implementation.

• Create cycle-accurate system models required for detailed architectural analysis and explore the performance impact of hardware/software trade-offs
• Measure interconnect performance of complex bus architectures using actual system behavior to drive traffic
• Quickly and easily make changes and explore design space alternatives before committing to an implementation

Hardware/Software System Validation

System validation requires the ability to model the entire system working together, and provide accurate models of both the hardware and software. Cycle-accurate virtual platforms provide a way to develop and validate software before committing to physical hardware implementations. Effective driver and firmware development requires the detail and performance that is provided by SoC Designer Plus.

• Speed system integration time by debugging your software on virtual platforms before physical prototypes are available
• Reduce risk by validating hadware implementations using actual system software
• Eliminate physical prototype availability as a bottleneck to software development
• Accelerate the cycle of debugging, implementing hardware or software changes, and then re-executing the system.

Unlimited Access to Carbon IP Exchange

Carbon SoC Designer Plus provides users unlimited access to Carbon IP Exchange (Cx). Carbon IP Exchange is a web portal that contains a variety of models from Carbon’s IP partners to provide the widest range of models targeted to virtual system prototypes. Models can be easily configured, built, downloaded and managed from Cx and dropped directly into SoC Designer Plus. The benefits of Carbon IP Exchange are numerous:

• Quality — Models are generated in a "clean" environment that is proven and continually regression tested. Cx understands the dependencies between the model and Soc Designer Plus to ensure compatibility.
• Usability — Models are configured using a short series of questions which automatically adapt as answers are given to ensure that only valid configurations are built. No RTL or design knowledge is required to configure or build a model.
• Enhanced Customer Satisfaction —The Cx service is available 24/7 allowing customers to configure the model as they need it and when they need it. Users can easily check on the status of any given model they have requested to be built.
• IP Management —Cx maintains a secure history of customer models and will automatically notify the users as soon as a new revision or model is available on Cx. This same secure history mechanism enables users to leverage IP and configurations being used elsewhere within their organization.

 

© 2008 Carbon Design Systems, Inc. SystemC is a trademark of the Open SystemC Initiative. Verilog is a registered trademark of Cadence Design Systems. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.