CoWare - Virtual platform could change the way device software is created
Published Apr 5 2006 [Printer friendly version] [Email article to a friend] [More Design & Manufacture articles]
A new product family designed to enable the company to expand into the
software development market has been announced by the leading supplier of
platform-driven electronic system-level (ESL) design software and services,
CoWare.
The new Virtual Platform product family supports the creation, distribution,
and use of virtual hardware platforms for software development. It delivers
new development tools and methodologies that enable the creation of virtual
hardware platforms for software development and validation. It also enables
electronics companies to engage more effectively with their customers and
ecosystem partners. The solution is integrated with and supports the CoWare
platform-driven ESL strategy, says the company.
Virtual hardware platforms are models of the device hardware and the
environment it evolves in, and are suitable for the development and
validation of an entire device software stack up to the application level.
Their key characteristics are fast execution speed, scalability, early
availability, unprecedented hardware controllability, observability,
determinism, and easy distribution. Traditional software development and
validation solutions have either been non-representative of the device
hardware, too slow, available too late, or have not provided enough hardware
controllability and observability, says the company.
Furthermore it says, by using virtual hardware platforms, software
developers and development teams can reap the benefits of an earlier start
to device software development and validation, improved productivity, and
lower development costs. Also, virtual hardware platforms will facilitate
supply chain interaction because they can be distributed to customers and
ecosystem partners. This results in earlier product feedback and software
development for faster time-to-market and increased return on investment.
"CoWare Virtual Platform provides an innovative solution for validating
embedded device software before the target hardware is available", said Matt
Volckmann, senior embedded software analyst at Venture Development
Corporation, Natick, Mass. "This new solution puts CoWare into a position to
directly support the device software development process and deliver value
to semiconductor companies and device manufacturers."
The CoWare Virtual Platform Product Family Includes CoWare Virtual Platform
Designer - the first virtual hardware platform creation environment based on
SystemC and includes a graphical modeling and high performance SystemC
environment, an Eclipse-based SystemC IDE, and an automated virtual platform
software package generation.
CoWare Virtual Platform: the self-contained distributable virtual platform
software package generated by the CoWare Virtual Plaform Designer, includes
the executable virtual platform model, the software tools to leverage the
unique capability of the virtual platform, and the scripting and application
programming interface to integrate the virtual platform in the software
development and validation environment.
"Our technologies, tools, and expertise in hardware/software co-design have
enabled us to provide an optimized and integrated platform-driven ESL design
solution for the software development and validation teams," said Marc
Serughetti, director of marketing, CoWare. "Our new solution provides the
infrastructure required so that electronic companies can focus on their core
expertise in order to design and deliver differentiated products to their
target markets in a more reliable and efficient manner."
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