Rapid virtual prototyping of real-time systems using predictable platform characterizations

Virtual prototypes (VPs) provide an early development platform to embedded software designers when the hardware is not ready yet and allows them to explore the design space of a system, both from the software and architecture perspective. However, automatic generation of VPs is not straightforward because several aspects such as the validity of the generated platforms and the timing of the components needs to be considered. To address this problem, based on a framework which characterizes predictable platform templates, we propose a method for automated generation of VPs which is integrated into a combined design flow consisting of analytic and simulation based design-space exploration. Using our approach the valid TLM 2.0-based simulated VP instances with timing annotation can be generated automatically and used for further development of the system in the design flow. We have demonstrated the potential of our method by designing a JPEG encoder system.