Virtio has added “cycle-approximate” transactional analysis to its virtual platform technology used to simulate the behavior, timing, and performance of popular embedded microprocessors. The company says the technology enables embedded developers to accurately estimate the timing of routines and system software performance. The simulator boots Linux, among other target OSes.

Virtio claims its Virtual Platforms execute application software on top of the virtual hardware, with execution speeds of ten million instructions per second per GHz of the host CPU. The Platforms can boot popular embedded operating systems such as Linux, Windows CE, Symbian OS, and VxWorks “in seconds,” the company claims. Supported architectures include ARM, Freescale MXC, TI OMAP, Intel XScale, and MIPS.

Cycle-approximate simulation provides faster performance than full cycle-accurate simulation for software development, according to Virtio
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Cycle-approximate transactional analysis works by determining significant events, such as bus transactions and interrupts, and estimating the number of cycles required to execute those events, Virtio explains. Cycle-approximate simulations execute much faster than cycle-accurate simulations, which emulate individual system cycles, while maintaining the level of accuracy necessary to provide valuable information for real-time software development and architectural analysis, the company says.

“This new cycle-approximate transactional simulation complements Virtio's existing functional transaction simulation technology and enables system designers to focus on critical areas, such as performance and timing,” said Filip Thoen, chief technical officer of Virtio. “One area in which we see immediate applicability and interest is wireless modem development for advanced 2.75, 3G & 4G networks, where real-time requirements are driving the need for this technology.”

Pricing and Availability

Virtio says it offers cycle-approximate technology as a custom service to meet customer's specific requirements, on a project-by-project basis. The service is available immediately starting at $75,000, depending on customers' needs.

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