A VIRTUAL SOCKET FRAMEWORK FOR RAPID EMULATION OF VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA DESIGNS (ThuPmOR3)

Author(s) : Paul Schumacher (Xilinx, United States of America) Marco Mattaveilli (EPFL, Switzerland) Adrian Chirila-Rus (IMEC, Belguim) Robert Turney (Xilinx, United States of America)

Abstract : Traditional design and test of complex multimedia systems involves a large number of test vectors and is a difficult and time-consuming task. The simulation times are prohibitively long on current desktop computers. Driving actual design scenarios and timing burst behavior which produce real-time effects is difficult to do with current simulation environments. This paper describes a rapid emulation framework for accessing multiple hardware IP blocks on an FPGA. This solution involves an abstraction of the FPGA platform by having a virtual socket layer that resides between the design and the test vehicles. A rapid prototyping platform is thus created, and its use with complex video and multimedia systems is described.

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