A timing-accurate HW/SW co-simulation of an ISS with SystemC

Abstract

The paper presents a system level co-simulation methodology for modeling, validating, and analyzing the performance of embedded systems. The proposed solution relies on the integration between an instruction set simulator (ISS) and the SystemC simulation kernel. In this way, the ISS is used to abstract the model of the real programmable device where the SW should run, while SystemC is used to model HW components that interact with the SW. A correct validation of such an architecture is infeasible without taking care of timing information. Thus, the paper proposes an effective timing synchronization mechanism, which uses timing information of an ISS (or a board) to synchronize the SystemC simulation.