Incorporating rapid design assembly into a virtual prototyping environment

Implementation times for moderate to large designs targeting FPGAs can be formidable. When FPGA compile times exceed that of a typical software compile time, virtual prototyping environments become increasingly attractive. Virtual prototyping environments, however, are limited in their ability to capture and operate on live data, sometimes exhibit behavior mismatches between the modeled, and implemented domain, and are often constrained to sub-realtime performance. Rapid design assembly (RDA) is a technology that enables the fast creation of FPGA bitstreams, reducing compile times to that of software compile times. RDA is a rapid prototyping framework that targets real hardware, yet can compile an arbitrary modular design in seconds. RDA is not a network-on-chip, nor a slot-based partial reconfiguration flow, but instead a free-form modular assembly tool unlike anything presently available. This paper presents a framework for retaining all of the benefits of a virtual prototyping environment, yet adds the capability of deploying the prototype into a real-time hardware/software system. The RDA environment targets contemporary Xilinx 7-Series and UltraScale FPGA families.