An FPGA Based Hybrid Processor Emulation Platform

This paper introduces a flexible, hybrid emulation platform for processor related emulation. It is based on a modern Xeon server and FPGA. With Intel processors implemented in FPGA and plugged into the Xeon server's processor socket, and with the Xeon BIOS modified to accommodate different cores, this platform is able to boot OS and run applications while interacting with the Xeon server's native hardware components. It enables researchers to do architectural changes in FPGA and quickly evaluate their effect on the whole platform. This platform is an ideal vehicle for research on processor technology, SoC architecture, reconfigurable computing, heterogeneous core architecture, etc.