A novel scalable and reconfigurable emulation platform for embedded systems verification

Modern embedded systems are characterized by a heterogeneous architecture including several modules (e.g., DSPs, memories and mixed-signal IPs) often integrated with one or more microprocessor cores controlling the system functionalities by means of embedded software programs. The verification of such a kind of systems has become a challenge due to their increasing complexity that makes traditional simulation and emulation techniques unaffordable methods for current quality and time-to-market constraints. This paper presents a new platform for the hardware and software verification of modern embedded systems based on a reconfigurable device. The main novelty consists in an infrastructure architecture containing a signal processing IP and a microprocessor core flexibly interfaced with the device under validation, aimed at the overall reduction of the design verification time. It also provides a dynamic interface supporting the software verification of the embedded system microprocessors. The proposed environment is fully scalable and adaptable to the requirements of a general purpose embedded system, enabling advanced verification flows at different phases of design and integration without time expensive interface modification. Experimental and performance analysis on a real industrial case study are reported proving the effectiveness of the proposed solution.