Method and apparatus for design verification using emulation and simulation
First Claim
1. An apparatus for design verification using emulation and simulation comprising:
- at least one reconfigurable element for emulating a first portion of a design;
at least one microprocessor for simulating a second portion of said design, connected to said reconfigurable element so as to minimize time for transferring data between said first portion of said design and said second portion of said design; and
an event detector connected to said at least one microprocessor for detecting a plurality of events during design verification, relieving said at least one microprocessor from performing event detection.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for combining emulation and simulation of a logic design. The method and apparatus can be used with a logic design that includes gate-level descriptions, behavioral representations, structural representations, or a combination thereof. The emulation and simulation portions are combined in a manner that minimizes the time for transferring data between the two portions. Simulation is performed by one or more microprocessors while emulation is performed in reconfigurable hardware such as field programmable gate arrays. When multiple microprocessors are employed, independent portions of the logic design are selected to be executed on the multiple synchronized microprocessors. Reconfigurable hardware also performs event detecting and scheduling operations to aid the simulation, and to reduce processing time.
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Citations
70 Claims
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1. An apparatus for design verification using emulation and simulation comprising:
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at least one reconfigurable element for emulating a first portion of a design; at least one microprocessor for simulating a second portion of said design, connected to said reconfigurable element so as to minimize time for transferring data between said first portion of said design and said second portion of said design; and an event detector connected to said at least one microprocessor for detecting a plurality of events during design verification, relieving said at least one microprocessor from performing event detection. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An apparatus for emulation and simulation comprising:
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a plurality of simulation modules, each having a microprocessor for simulating a design; a first reconfigurable element for emulating said design, connected to said simulation modules; said plurality of simulation modules further comprising a second reconfigurable element; and said second reconfigurable element comprising an event detector for detecting events to assist said microprocessors in simulating said design. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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60. A method for simulating and emulating a design comprising the following steps:
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importing said design, where a portion of said design is a behavioral design, to create a behavioral database; dividing said behavioral design into a plurality of behavioral fragments; preprocessing said behavioral database to form a preprocessed behavioral database; generating a plurality of executables for a plurality of simulation modules for processing therein; creating a netlist; and processing said netlist to create configuration data for a plurality of reconfigurable elements. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62)
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63. A method for combining emulation and simulation comprising the following steps:
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connecting an emulator and a plurality of microprocessors so as to minimize time for transferring data between said emulator and said microprocessors; emulating a first portion of a design by said emulator; simulating a second portion of said design by said simulator; and detecting a plurality of events by said emulator that would ordinarily be detected by said microprocessors. - View Dependent Claims (64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70)
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Specification