VaST Streamlines Multi-Core Virtual System Prototyping
Staff Reporter -- EDN, July 17, 2006
For increased run-time performance of multi-core designs, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based VaST Systems Technology Corp. today unveiled the latest version of its virtual system prototyping tool, CoMET6.
CoMET6 aims to deliver increased run-time performance for multi-core designs, enhance interoperability and SystemC support, along with tighter integration of design implementation tools.
For improved multi-core performance, CoMET6 features run-time improvements for multi-core design that deliver linear run-time performance vs. the number of cores.
Native IEEE 1666 SystemC and OCP-IP TL2 are now supported with SystemC functions executed directly on the CoMET6 simulation kernel, resulting in full OSCI 1666 SystemC compliance and ultra-fast simulation speed, the company said.
CoMET6 also allows direct mapping of OCP-IP TL2 constructs for improved bus communications performance for models using OCP-P TL2. These improvements are meant to allow high performance and standards-based interoperability.
The tool is now also interoperable through Eclipse Support and an Eclipse framework, which the company believes is quickly becoming the de facto industry standard development platform and framework for embedded system design tools.
Through Eclipse, CoMET6 supports customer-developed and third party Eclipse plug-ins, allowing tighter integrations with customer-specific design tools and flows.
CoMET6 also allows virtual system prototypes to drive hardware implementation and verification through HDL co-simulation. The initial release of CoMET6 supports Mentor Graphics ModelSimR VHDL; while subsequent releases will support additional simulators such as ModelSim Verilog, Cadence IncisiveT HDL Simulator, and Synopsys VCSR.
The tool also contains a Virtual Platform Editor (VPE) entry and analysis user interface to speed specification, configuration and debug of the virtual system prototype. VPE is a hierarchical block-based capability which complements existing tree-, table- and HTML-based interfaces, VaST said.
CoMET6 is currently in beta release and will be generally available in Q3. VaST will demonstrate the tool at next week’s Design Automation Conference in San Francisco.
