Validation of complex designs through hardware prototyping

Functional validation of complex designs by means of hardware prototyping (emulation) is a major tool used by industry to improve the validation quality at the different chip design program phases. However, fitting a design into emulation is not a simple task. Lots of elements collide in orthogonal domains, while trying to get emulation going. This paper goes through selected topics in ramping up a large emulation program, emphasizing items that worth looking into, in order to render the emulation program feasible and effective. This paper does not involve specific project numbers and statistics. However, it is based on the experience from complex design emulation programs.