An HLA-Based Distributed Cosimulation Framework in Mixed-Signal System-on-Chip Design

• Published in: IEEE transactions on very large scale integration (VLSI) systems 2017-02, Vol.25 (2), p.760-764
• Main Authors: Seok, Moon Gi, Kim, Tag Gon, Choi, Chang Beom, Park, Daejin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation models; Adapters; Backplanes; Computer architecture; Computer simulation; Couplings; Design engineering; High-level architecture (HLA)/runtime infrastructure (RTI); Libraries; Mathematical models; mixed-signal design; Programming languages; simulator interoperation; Simulators; Specification and description languages; Synchronism; Synchronization; System on chip; system-level verification; system-on-chip (SoC) design
• ISSN: 1063-8210; 1557-9999
• DOI: 10.1109/TVLSI.2016.2594948

In mixed-signal system-on-chip (SoC) design, distributed cosimulation is one of the practical approaches for unifying various abstracted hardware models using different description languages. Conventional ad hoc distributed cosimulation solutions do not have formal theoretical backgrounds of simulator integration into their solutions. In this brief, we propose a general cosimulation framework based on the high-level architecture (HLA) and newly defined programming language interface for interoperation (PLI-I) as a formal simulator interface. Based on the PLI-I and HLA, we propose formal integration and interoperation procedures. To reduce integration costs, the procedures have been developed into a common library and then merged with model-dependent signal-event converter to handle differently abstracted in/out signals. During the interoperation, to resolve the different time-advance mechanisms of the digital and analog simulators, the adapter executes an advanced HLA-based synchronization based on the presimulation concepts. The case study shows the reduced design effort in integrating and validating the heterogeneous models and simulators using the proposed framework in mixed-signal SoC design.