Welcome to our site! EDAboard.com is an international Electronics Discussion Forum focused on EDA software, circuits, schematics, books, theory, papers, asic, pld, 8051, DSP, Network, RF, Analog Design, PCB, Service Manuals... and a whole lot more! To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
Simulator and emulator are two different tools aimed to provide a working platform to run a full software or execute a segment of a program written for a microprocessor or a microcontroller.
A simulator is a software platform, sometimes known as virtual (hardware) emulator running on a computer system such as a PC. It can only simulate the behaviour of the program you have written. Most simulator comes with virtual switches, I/Os and timers, and LEDs specifed to a special register mapped to the address space. The only problem with simulator is that it cannot simulate a real-time control and data-acquisition because it has no physical connection to the outside world for real-world signals.
An emulator (sometimes known as an in-circuit emulator or ICE) is a hardware platform, usually powered by a more powerful microprocessor or microcontroller than the microprocessor you want to emulate. It comes in a module or a box with either PLCC or DIP pins for you to insert and interface to your targetted application or a development board. It also has either a parallel, a standard 9-pin DB/M serial or a USB connection to the PC. An emulator software configuration and debugger tool runs in the PC for you to debug and watch memory dump, disassembly dump, registers, and ports. The problem with emulator is that it is usually expensive.
Alternatives to emulator and simulator is what is currently more popular in the market, which is the in-circuit debugger(ICD) that is also an in-circuit programmer(ICP). It is cheaper than emulator and allows real-time debugging.
Simulation versus emulation
The roles of simulation and emulation in the development of DSP-based designs can be confusing, since at a glance they perform similar functions. In simplest terms, the main difference between simulation and emulation is that simulation is done all in software and emulation is done in hardware. Probe deeper, however, and the unique characteristics and compelling benefits of each tool are clear. Together they complement each other to deliver benefits that either one alone cannot provide.
Traditionally, the work of simulation begins in the very first stages of design, where the designer uses it to evaluate initial code. Developers use simulators to model the architecture of complex multi-core systems early in the design process, typically months before hardware is available. This makes it possible to evaluate various design configurations without the need for prototype devices. In addition, the simulation software collects massive amounts of data as the designer runs their core code and makes different variations to it. The simulation software also makes it possible to determine the most efficient code to use in the application´s design by representing the performance of the DSP and any peripherals, which affect the performance of the code.
However, in the past, the slowness of the simulators prevented them from being used extensively. To be effective, simulators must be fast to allow for the massive data collection needed for complex DSP applications. As a result of the slow simulators, designers resort instead to conducting tuning and analysis later in the development cycle when hardware prototypes are available – a process that results in considerable time and cost penalties. With the introduction of fast simulation technology and data collection tools, developers can gather huge amounts of data in minutes instead of the hours previous or competitive simulators required. Simulators are an important tool in the design and debug process because they can run a simulation identically over and over, which hardware-based evaluations cannot achieve because of changes caused by external events, such as interrupts. They are also extremely flexible and provide insight into the CPU alone or can be used to model a full system. They also can be easily rescaled and integrated with different memories and peripherals. Since designers are modeling the hardware they can actually build things into the model that allow them to extract a lot more data enabling some of the advanced analysis capabilities.
Emulation Capabilities In-Depth
So, where does emulation come in? Emulation allows developers to see the real-time interactions between different hardware and software models. It is also possible to hook up real-world stimulus to peripherals and start debugging system behavior. Developers use the emulator later in the design cycle when real-world data is available to run with the code. It validates the simulator-tested design by determining how the actual hardware performs when the application runs on it. Once this information is known, the designer can again employ the simulator to further optimize hardware performance.
The emulators themselves have been pulling hard to keep up with the inexorable upward march of clock speeds, data rates and nearly impenetrable device complexity. Advanced emulation technology like real-time data exchange allows you to gain visibility into running systems without impacting behavior. TI´s XDS560TM PCI Bus JTAG Scan-Based Emulator with its RTDXTM data link helps reduces the problem of "vanishing visibility" that occurs as processor speeds increase, and as peripherals, data buses and other system components are embedded in devices, making it almost impossible to view real-time behavior of an application executing within the chip or find a test point with which to access the data. Emulators can transfer data to and from the host development platform and target processor, download code and view complex sequences of events without altering the performance of the device all of which make it possible to evaluate how the system will perform once in place in a fully developed application.
Emulator runs on actual files as the original device would whereas Simulator just MIMCS the way a device would respond to your program and hence most of the time executes on different file format.
Yes palladium is a emulator which is based on Processor,,,,,
Palladium systems are built using custom processors designed specifically for emulation. Each custom ASIC in a Palladium implements hundreds of programmable Boolean processors for logic evaluation. Each ASIC is combined with memory on a ceramic multi-chip module (MCM) for modeling design memory and for debugging.
as the name suggests , simulators are to check how ur code is working - with the help of software that simulates the registers , peripherals and all ( no real hardware is involved and only simulation of them using software).
But emulators on the hand to check how is code is working with ur hardware . the emulator acts like ur processor(emulates) in ur harware , so that u can debug whether ur code and the hardware go alone well or not.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
