Virtutech Announces Simics Model For Leon2 Processor

Fastest, Most Robust Simulation Platform for Test and Development of European Space Applications

DATA SYSTEMS SPACE CONFERENCE, BERLIN—May 23, 2006—Virtutech, Inc., the leading provider of simulation-based solutions for software development and test, today announced at the Data Systems in Space Conference the release of a Simics model of the Leon2 processor, a SPARC-compliant, 32-bit processor developed by the European Space Agency that serves as the hardware standard for the European space community. The new Simics model provides the fastest and most robust simulation platform available today to enable a faster time-to-market and higher quality software product for companies designing large electronics systems based on the Leon2 processor. The model achieves 318MIPS running the Dhrystone benchmark on a 2.4GHz AMD Athlon64 system.
 
The Virtutech Simics model of the Leon2 processor provides both commercial and research-focused space customers the ability to simulate large, networked systems at high speed.  Simics features Hindsight, the first tool with the ability to reverse-execute code once an error is detected, improving debugging productivity to significantly shorten the software development and testing phase.  Simics also comes with Device Modeling Language (DML), the most productive environment for modeling other devices in the Leon2-based system.
 
“Whereas alternative simulators offer low-speed, cycle accurate models suitable for small systems,

Virtutech Simics provides the first simulation model of the Leon2 processor for the test and development of large and complex systems with numerous networked nodes,” said Niklas Rudemo, general manager, Europe, Middle-East and Africa at Virtutech.  “Virtutech Simics is already used by a number of companies in aerospace and defense, including Iridium Satellite.  Now, members of the European space community can leverage Simics to benefit from the ability to start developing software much earlier in the product lifecycle with a fully accurate model of the hardware, reducing the schedule-risk of the project and improving the quality of the uploaded code.”

Virtutech’s full system simulation platform, Simics, allows software developers to model hardware so accurately that the software cannot detect the difference between running on real production hardware and running on Simics. Any code — from application code to low-level code, such as real-time operating systems, device-drivers and protocol stacks — can run on Simics exceptionally fast. 

About Virtutech

Virtutech, Inc. is the leading provider of full-system simulation for advanced software development. Virtutech’s Simics is a revolutionary, award-winning simulator that provides a programmer-friendly environment for testing and debugging embedded software. Simics eliminates software developers’ dependence on test hardware and drives concurrent development, enabling its customers to lower capital expenditure, accelerate time to market and reduce project risk. Based on more than a decade of R&D and close collaboration with leading universities and systems vendors, Virtutech’s technology serves the needs of the world’s leading technology providers, including Cisco, EMC, Ericsson, Honeywell, IBM and Sun Microsystems.

Virtutech is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, visit www.virtutech.com.