Speeding up SoC virtual platform simulation by data-dependency-aware synchronization and scheduling

In this paper, we proposed a novel simulation scheme, called data-dependency-aware synchronization and scheduling, for SoC virtual platform simulation. In contrast to the conventional clock-or transaction-based synchronization, our simulation scheme can work with the clock decoupling and direct-data-access techniques to implement the trace-driven virtual synchronization methodology. In addition, we further extend the virtual synchronization concept to handle the interrupt signals in the system. This enables the porting of operating system (uCLinux) in our virtual platform. The experimental results show that our virtual platform can achieve 3 to 5 million-instructions-per-second simulation speed, or 44 times speed-up over the conventional cycle accurate approach, while still maintaining the same cycle-count accuracy.