Virtera is shipping a free tool that can simulate a 217MHz ARM processor and embedded Linux system in real-time. The VirtualMHz for ARM (VM-arm) uses dynamic instruction compilation, rather than the interpretive simulation techniques used by competitors. A commercial version will be available later this year, Virtera says.

(Click for larger view of Opie running on VM-arm simulator)

Virtera says the commercial version of VM-arm will add debug and developer features, but that the free version is not restricted in any way. According to Virtera, VM-arm runs Dhrystone 2.1 at 217 MHz on a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4 desktop, and can boot a stock Linux 2.6.11 kernel to a login prompt in less than eight seconds.

Virtera says translation is faster than interpretation with repeated instruction sequences

Virtera says VM-arm supports a range of ARM software environments, from bare machine programs running without an OS to full operating systems such as ARM Linux. The company plans to provide “near-complete” simulation of the StrongARM SA-110 and Sharp Zaurus SL-5500. Additionally, the simulator can be extended to model modified ARM processors and systems before they reach production, Virtera says.

Availability

The free version of ARM-se has been available for download since late May, along with a technical whitepaper. The commercial version is expected this year.

ARM Ltd. announced yesterday that it will also ship simulation tools capable of running at 100 MIPS (millions of instructions per second) on a fast Pentium 4 system.

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