Virtual prototyping of multiprocessor architectures using the open virtual platform

The complexity of System on Chip (SoC) design is increasing continuously with the use of MultiProcessor System on Chip (MPSoC) architectures. Mastering the complexity of these systems with a typical co-design workflow is really recommended. As such, computer aided design tools are needed to alleviate the task of designers. There is a lack of co-design tools that support multiprocessor architectures with Operating System (OS) support. Virtual platforms enable us to discover the interactive design space exploration at early stage in the design. They make designing embedded systems less tedious and elevate the low technical details to manage systems complexity and reduce time to market. In this paper, we present an exploration of the Open Virtual Platform (OVP) capabilities for multiprocessor architectures simulation. We particularly focus on the inter-processor communication facilities. We illustrate this study by a set of homogeneous and heterogeneous multiprocessor architectures with different memory hierarchies and peripherals followed by a run of several applications. We also integrate the use of OS to permit workload distribution among processors using several case studies to validate our system.