Simulation Engine Adds SystemC Modeling

Sept. 15, 2005

WITH USE OF SYSTEMC ON THE RISE, designers need simulators that can handle microarchitecturelevel exploration as well as full-system macroarchitecture modeling. Mirabilis Design's VisualSim Architect simulator has been enhanced with the coupling of Syste

David Maliniak

The simulator addresses SystemC limitations in former releases. It accelerates construction and analysis of transaction-level models (TLMs) by a factor of three. Also, it enables software design and adds pre-built traffic, analysis, and resource sharing. The system extends the FIFOs and basic programming constructs of SystemC with prebuilt building-block libraries.

VisualSim seamlessly imports existing models and intellectual property available in SystemC. It also generates templates for construction of new SystemC models. With this release, Mirabilis has created a superset of the proposed Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) SystemC 3.0 specification.

SystemC-related enhancements include graphical UML entry and XML-based connectivity management; graphical state-machine definitions; application-specific traffic generators; co-simulation with Matlab, Excel, Verilog, VHDL, serial I/O, and hardware-in-the-loop; pre-built statistics generators and dynamic runtime visualization tools; and mixed-signal simulation.

VisualSim SystemC Modeler is currently available on Windows, Linux, and Unix. It requires VisualSim Architect. Starting at $1700, pricing includes the OSCI SystemC v2.1 simulator at no cost.

Mirabilis Design
www.mirabilisdesign.com

About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.