A novel relational model based hardware simulator

The design validation of large VLSI systems as the most computer-intensive task in the entire design cycle makes hardware simulators the most important CAD tools. Designers are aware of the high price of current simulators. Many of them either have a DBMS on their own machine or can connect to one of them via the network. However, designers have not contemplated using it as the host of a powerful cost-effective simulator. In this paper we will introduce an innovative simulator based on Relational Model databases which not only has all the characteristics of a typical simulator, but also provides unique features which does not exist in the custom simulators, such as multi-user interactivity, embeddable as simulation engine, ability to resume simulation from where it was aborted, high performance for large designs.