Synopsys launches new family of virtual protoyping kits for ARM’s big.LITTLE and multicore systems
The VDK Family for ARM Cortex Processors contains multiple reference designs, analysis and debug software tools for the Cortex A15 MPCore processor and ARM big.LITTLE processing. By using the VDKs developers can now optimise for performance and energy efficiency a year ahead of board availability.
“Synopsys’ virtual prototyping technology has helped us accelerate software development before with great results, as we were able to demonstrate with the OMAP5430 processor,” said Vincent Verfaillie, development platforms and tools manager at Texas Instruments. “We continue to use their VDK solution to deliver the capabilities we need for early software development and a fast ramp up with our big.LITTLE processing platform.”
The visibility and controllability of big.LITTLE processing-based designs enables debug and analysis capabilities that allow software developers to optimise the designs based on realistic end user experiences as well as minimise software/hardware integration issues. The VDK offers developers the ability to optimise Linux, Android and big.LITTLE power management using record and replay of real world scenarios.
“As companies are adopting our big.LITTLE processing to enable both next generation performance and energy-efficiency for smart, connected devices, ARM and its partners have paved the way by encouraging a strong ecosystem,” said Jim Nicholas, vice president of marketing, processor division, ARM. “By offering the VDK Family for ARM Cortex Processors, supporting our Cortex-A15 MPCore and big.LITTLE processing, Synopsys is able to offer this partner ecosystem a highly effective solution for early software development and help facilitate innovation.”
The VDK Family for ARM Cortex Processors comes pre-configured for Linux (Vanilla 2.6.38) and Android (Gingerbread 2.3.4) operating systems (OS) as a starting point for developing actual device software. In addition, the VDK Family is pre-configured for the multicore task migration software layer between the big.LITTLE processing cluster, which includes ARM Cortex A15 MPCore and Cortex A7 MPCore processors, and the client OS. This layer dynamically migrates the software between the processors for performance and power optimisation. The VDK allows developers to take advantage of this new layer and provides support for debugging and optimising the software running on multicore hardware like big.LITTLE processing. These VDKs include common interfaces and peripherals such as: USB3.0, Ethernet, UART, LCD, keyboard, battery, memory and more.
“Synopsys’ first VDK family empowers customers like Texas Instruments to take full advantage of ARM’s latest processing technology and reduce time-to-market for their next generation products,” said John Koeter, vice president of marketing for IP and systems at Synopsys. “Synopsys’ VDKs targeted for big.LITTLE processing and Cortex A15 processor based designs provide software developers with the necessary tools to optimise software much earlier in their project development cycle.” The VDK also includes plug-n-play integration with software debuggers from ARM, Lauterbach and GNU.
www.synopsys.com
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