Concurrent hardware/software development

Matt Buckley of Beach Solutions describes a methodology to give software developers access to working emulations of IP blocks generated from the system specification – allowing software and hardware development to proceed concurrently.

Many designers recognise the need to concurrently develop system software and hardware. There are many tools now available that allow a system architect to specify a system design independent of the hardware/software division. However, before implementation can begin a division between the hardware and the software must be specified. At this point the development of software and hardware generally follow separate paths. The hardware and software designers will both be given a copy of the system specification created by the system architect. The hardware and software are then developed independently from each other. The hardware designers verify their design via simulation with test benches that they develop based on the system specification. Similarly the software designers use the system specification to create an abstract model of the hardware system. This abstract model is then used to develop the software design.