Wireless Platforms
Systems such as smartphones and wireless PDAs include an application processor based on several processor cores (at least one CPU and one DSP), such as ARM, Freescale, ARC, TI and others. Verifying the application software that runs on a wireless device is usually a lengthy task. At the hardware level, cycle-level interactions must be verified between peripherals, buses, memories, caches, video accelerators and other complex intellectual property (IP). At the software level, the processor is asked to control any number of complex tasks from image processing to handling keypad input.
EVE’s ZeBu was specifically architected to provide seamless hardware/software co-verification of the most complex ASICs and chip sets, and do so with the fastest overall system clock speed. ZeBu is the only hardware assisted verification platform that provides a single system from hardware debugging through software development. Hardware/software interface problems are quickly located and fixed through the use of a common platform. Hardware signal visibility remains available at all stages of development.
Other EVE wireless application customers include Qualcomm, NEC, Renesas, and ARM, spanning applications from wireless application processors through GSM/W-CDMA modems. EVE further provides validation IP for multimedia applications including transaction-based interfaces for UARTs, keypads, USB On-The-Go, I2C, LCD display modules, Ethernet controllers, JTAG, memory models such as SDR, DDR, DDR2, DIMM DRAM and DirectICE interfaces for in-circuit emulation, including JTAG cable connection. EVE also supports connecting software debuggers to perform HW/SW co-verification of firmware together with hardware validation.
SEE ALSO
- Solution: Transaction-Based Verification
- Product: Validation IP
- Demo: Linux Boot
- Success Story: DiBcom
OMAP Wireless Platform
As an example, one of our customers, TI Wireless, used ZeBu for both their hardware development, and to deploy their OMAP chip set platform to software developers. TI has developed a high speed verification environment using bus functional models (BFM) for all their external interfaces and synthesizable memory models for the external Flash and DRAM. This enables them to use ZeBu to verify a complete system including cameras, USB, LCD screens, keypads, memories and much more. In a specific case, TI wished to verify that the application software correctly controlled the picture functionality of the phone. The input was generated from the camera in the form of a little flower girl. They verified that the correct output was seen through the LCD, based upon an image manipulation command (rotation, etc.) specified via the keypad.
