Virtio Corp. has enhanced its software tool that emulates TI's OMAP2420 system-on-chip (SoC) development platform, adding support for the platform's onboard TWL92230 system power manager. Virtio's VPOM-2420 Virtual Platform release 2.0 provides “fast, full-function emulation” for TI's OMAP2420 development platform, which targets advanced 3G phones, the company says.

Virtio's virtual platform allows developing applications, middleware, operating systems, and device drivers based on the OMAP2420 OMAP SoC prior to when working hardware becomes available. With low power consumption becoming an increasingly critical factor in the success of mobile phones and other handheld products, the addition of power-management emulation is likely to be a welcome addition.

According to Virtio, the VPOM-2420 Virtual Platform uses a combination of the C programming language, graphical modeling, and transaction-based modeling to replicate the functionality of TIs OMAP2420 SoC. Subsystems emulated include: several on-chip ARM and DSP processors; Image and Video Acceleration (IVA) and 2D/3D graphics acceleration subsystems; display, USB, Ethernet, and other system I/O; power management subsystem; and interfaces for keypad and touch-screen inputs. The software-based emulation of system I/O allows developers to connect real-world peripherals such as a USB camera through the host workstation, as well as to simulate other peripherals such as MMC cards containing application code.

According to Virtio chief technology officer Filip Thoen, customer experiences with software development using a software emulator have demonstrated a productivity improvement of two to five times compared to traditional development practices.

VPOM-2420 Virtual Platform release 2.0 supports MontaVista Linux (and several other embedded operating systems), and can also execute binary code files that target the OMAP2420 platform. In addition, the virtual platform integrates with development tools such as Metrowerks Code Composer Studio and the ARM development tools, Virtio says.

Virtio's VPOM-2420 Virtual Platform release 2.0 with power-management emulation is available now, priced at $2,488 USD.

 
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