What is HW & SW co-design mean?

[jamesyang1209]

what is hw

What is hardware and software co design mean? How?
I think some possible:
1. After setup FPGA, using FPGA to run a lot a software program.
2. After RTL coding of the module done, coding another (like C or system C) model for software simulation.
3. Before RTL coding, think about how to do software co-simulation in the design process.

Beside item 2, both 1 and 3 has been done for many years.
Why people today say "co-design is more and more important"?
How?

 

[delay]

what is h/w and s/w licensing?

This term generally applies to SoC designs where there is some microcontroller/processor core that runs instruction set along with the digital hardware part of FPGA/ASIC. Packet and software radio are the two major contributers to mixed signal and SoC designs that involve software on top of hardware.

 

[eda_wiz]

what does &sw mean?

I will reply with an example....

suppose we need to deisgn an MPEG4 enc/decoder for a mobile phone or digicam...

we have 3 options

1 Implement the entire algorithms in Hardware....
ADV..high speed
dis adv.. No flexibility after fabrication... high cost for HW design...

2 Implement the entire algorithms in software using a TI/ADI DSP
processor....
ADV..high flexiblity since firmware can be changed anytime...
dis adv.. may not meet our speed requirements

3 Implement the entire algorithms in Hardware + software....
ie time critical & computationally complex algorithms in HW and others in SW
ADV..high speed + flexiblity...

Now ... before implementing such a system we wanna know which is the best HW/SW partion and simulate the total design....
for that we use HW/SW co simulation tools like seamless .. coware n2c etc..

what u can do is .. if u have RTL for the hardware and the C code u r planning to use as the firmware u can simulate it and see whether u meet ur requiremetns......

so precisely co design means deisgning Hw and sw parallely and simultes to see whether it meet the reqs

 

[jamesyang1209]

hw and sw means

I will reply with an example....

Now ... before implementing such a system we wanna know which is the best HW/SW partion and simulate the total design....
for that we use HW/SW co simulation tools like seamless .. coware n2c etc..

what u can do is .. if u have RTL for the hardware and the C code u r planning to use as the firmware u can simulate it and see whether u meet ur requiremetns......

so precisely co design means deisgning Hw and sw parallely and simultes to see whether it meet the reqs

How to co-simulate with RTL code and C code?
Do you mean a "C model" or a MCU/DSP run "C code"?
If we only simulate RTL with MCU run C firmware, can we call this is a HW/SW co-design?

 

[eda_wiz]

hw & sw license means ?

How to co-simulate with RTL code and C code?

2 options... suppose u r using ARM RTL... compile ur code with ADS and give the binary as input to the RTL ..and step through the results...

2nd option is to use a tool like "seamless" which has already inbuilt simulation models for most of the CPUs...and compile ur code..

ok so if u have seamless and modelsim license.. u can step thru your C code and see correspondigly the hardware signals in waveform viewer..

Do you mean a "C model" or a MCU/DSP run "C code"?

I didnt get ur qn...if u r asking about the CPU model.. it can be RTL or Cycle accurate bus functional model..

If we only simulate RTL with MCU run C firmware, can we call this is a HW/SW co-design?

thats co simulation .. the entire process of designing the HW and SW sde by side is called co design..

 

[seseandy]

some one can give more detial explatation?

 

[pratik mehta]

hi

does it have to do with the compatibility of software with the available software

PM

 

[Arthurzss]

There is many tool surppurt co simulation now.
If you read the reference boot of it, you will see.

 

[foster_cn]

for Co-simulation EDA, mentor's seamless could do the job.