ARM big.LITTLE Virtual Platforms

ARM big.LITTLE Virtual Platforms
by Paul McLellan on 04-03-2012 at 7:11 pm

You have probably heard something about ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture. This links a Cortex-A15 multi-core CPU with a Cortex-A7 CPU. The A15 is a high-performance processor and the A7 is a very low power processor. The basic idea is that when high-performance is required (playing a graphical video game on your smartphone,… Read More


DVCon: Hardware/software Co-design from a Software Perspective

DVCon: Hardware/software Co-design from a Software Perspective
by Paul McLellan on 02-09-2012 at 4:56 am

The EDAC Emerging Companies Comittee (would that be the EDACECC?) is organizing a free panel session one evening at DVCon. It is Monday February 27th from 6pm to 8.30pm. I don’t yet have a room but it will be at the DoubleTree Hotel where DVCon is being held.

EDA companies often address hardware/software co-design from a hardware… Read More


Introducing TLMCentral

Introducing TLMCentral
by Paul McLellan on 09-29-2011 at 8:00 am

Way back in 1999 the open SystemC initiative (OSCI) was launched. In 2005 the IEEE standard for SystemC (IEEE1666-2005 if you are counting) was approved. In 2008, TLM 2.0 was standardized (transactional level models), making building virtual platforms using SystemC models easier. At least the models should be play nicely together,… Read More


Synopsys Virtualizer

Synopsys Virtualizer
by Paul McLellan on 07-19-2011 at 8:00 am

As you probably know, Synopsys last year acquired VaST and CoWare and a couple of years early had acquired Virtio. All three companies primarily competed in the virtual platform market. In addition, Synopsys is the #2 IP company (behind ARM) and has a wide range of tools for SoC design. So the interesting question is how would they… Read More