FROM EDN EUROPE: SoC hardware debug techniques extended to system-level

For system-on-chip designs that are based on an embedded processor platform, Novas Software is extending the reach of its debug tools to cover a complete project originated in a system-level design style. The company already has a strong presence in hardware (RTL-based) debug with its Verdi product; a new offering called nESL adds capabilities in the system and software areas. New features include transaction debug analysis, SystemC compiler, visualisation and tracing tools, and hardware-software debug interfaces.

nESL is aimed at complex designs using embedded processor cores and bus-based communication. It provides a single environment with a common interface for debug at all levels – from a system model through simulation-based verification to emulation of the complete system. There is support for multiple languages, testbench and assertion code, mixed signal analysis, hardware/software analysis on certain commonly used processor cores and buses, and protocol analysis.

Transaction analysis is a way of viewing communication within a design; knowledge of a particular protocol, plus signal data, is combined in an abstraction that presents information at the right level to gain an understanding of the system's bus-level behaviour. Complex device operation that cannot easily be understood from signal behaviour alone is made intelligible. Some of the protocol information is gained through a partnership with Spiratech (www.spiratech.com ). An open transaction interface assists with capture and storage of this data. Modeling of C, C++, and SystemC allows both hardware and software views of a system. nESL extracts hardware attributes from SystemC and presents the details in a separate window; software interactions are modelled in parallel, and users can study them in a familiar software debug style.

Multiple software environments such as the ARM Realview debugger can be linked into a hardware/software co-debug environment. Novas says that this package provides coverage of all of the diverse methodologies that designers are using for debug in the emerging system-level design flow. Novas Software offers nESL as an option to the Verdi package; prices start at $6000 for an annual licence.

Novas Software, www.novas.com.