The Great Divide: A Tale of Three Hardware Emulation Architectures

The Great Divide: A Tale of Three Hardware Emulation Architectures
by Lauro Rizzatti on 05-06-2026 at 10:00 am

A Tale of Three Hardware Emulation Architectures

Hardware emulation arose as a necessity out of the needs of the eighties. By the mid-1980s, semiconductor designs had outgrown the practical limits of gate-level simulation. Gate-level simulation delivered accuracy, but at glacial pace; silicon prototypes performed at real-speed but arrived far too late. The industry needed… Read More


The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of In-Circuit Emulation (Part 1 of 2)

The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of In-Circuit Emulation (Part 1 of 2)
by Lauro Rizzatti on 09-11-2025 at 6:00 am

The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of In Circuit Emulation Part 1 Figure 1

Introduction: The Historical Roots of Hardware-Assisted Verification

The relentless pace of semiconductor innovation continues to follow an unstoppable trend: the exponential growth of transistor density within a given silicon area. This abundance of available semiconductor fabric has fueled the creativity of design… Read More