Trace-driven HW/SW cosimulation using virtual synchronization technique

Poor performance of HW/SW cosimulation is mainly caused by synchronization requirement between component simulators. Virtual synchronization technique was proposed to remove the need of synchronization in cycle accurate cosimulation. But the previous execution-driven simulation based on virtual synchronization has limitations in the application area. In this paper, we propose a novel trace-driven HW/SW cosimulation using virtual synchronization technique. Through OS modeling and channel modeling, the proposed cosimulation technique could be applied more widely while improving the simulation performance further. Experiments with a DIVX player example prove the viability of the proposed technique.