ProximusDA teams with STMicroelectronics to Develop Next-generation Distributed SOC TLM Virtual Prototypes

ProximusDA has developed a technology to enable the distribution and execution of complex distributed applications over multi-core CPUs and GPUs. The foundation of this technology relies on a formal and explicit system-level communication modeling at the transaction level throughout the complete system. ProximusRealizer, a ProximusDA product announced last year at DAC in San Francisco, leverages its distributed execution kernel to support critical SOC design tasks:

- Capturing and executing SOC functional specifications (HW independent system level specs)
- System level hardware & software architecture explorations and specifications
- Embedded software development, mapping and distributed execution and profiling
- System-level HW verification and SW validation

ProximusRealizer builds high-performance distributed software virtual prototypes by leveraging multi-cpu/multi-core hardware available in today's off-the-shelf servers. It enables HW & SW architects to explore multiple HW/SW trade-offs in a fraction of time that it would take with a traditional SystemC TLM and earlier than with FPGA approaches.

“Our collaboration with ST demonstrates the beneficial synergy between ProximusDA and its customers. By combining ProximusDA’s expertise in parallel and distributed software application with ST’s deep expertise in SOC advanced distributed-computing architecture and its undisputed SystemC TLM leadership, we are able to deliver solutions that uniquely address the requirement and complexity of upcoming SOC products. The first achievement of the collaboration has been to allow ST to build distributed execution runtime of its SystemC TLM platforms on machines with up to 64 cores,” said Enno Wein, CEO of ProximusDA.

The next generation of System-on-a-Chip requires critical attention to the development of the embedded software due to the intrinsic nature of the distributed computing architecture. At the same time, the design of heterogeneous multi-core architectures is demanding massive computing resources to fuel software virtual prototypes.

“ST has a strong focus on the embedded processing segment as the heart of electronics systems, so we wanted to move our TLM virtual prototyping to the next level of performance in order to stay ahead of the competition,” said Laurent Ducousso, Virtual Platform Manager, Unified Platform Division R & D, Digital Convergence Group, STMicroelectronics. “Working with ProximusDA leverages our in-depth SystemC TLM investment and enables accelerated execution speed. With excellent performance results, we are currently integrating ProximusDA technologies into our TLM environment.”

Availability and Compatibility: ProximusRealizer is currently available for production use.