Open Virtual Platforms(OVP)

Presenter: Shao-Chieh Hou

OVP => Open Virtual Platforms A FREE and OPEN platform for SoC and MPSoC

develop Hardware develop

。Existing modules。Self-design modules(in C)

Software develop。Co-simulation

Like Coware(System C), but the no GUI and the syntax is different.

Can be run on Linux and Windows XP, and can run with GCC and GDB

What is OVP?

Hardware platform Written in proprietary languages and libraries Low level, cycle accurate Details of the hardware Like System C

Software platform Fast ,but not detail Focus on the instructions and code

But in embedded system develop, both of then is important.

Types of platform

The growing challenge for SoC The growth of the hardware complexity The embedded software need

more fast hardware

The solution is multi-core – MPSoC “Von Neumann is a poor use of scaling –all the energy is going on

the communication between the processor and the memory. Its much better to use 20 microprocessors running at 100MHz than one at 2GHz” - Hugo de Man, IMEC

Why OVP?

Embedded software is the big problem with MPSoC products Software co-design and co-simulation now is a important issue "30 to 50 per cent of R&D budgets are spent on software, and the

cost is rising 20 per cent a year. The software effort overtakes the hardware effort at 130nm.“ - Jack Browne, MIPS Technologies

Why OVP?(cont.)

So OVP give a platform for multi-core and the software co-simulation.

Why OVP?(cont.)

Create your own environment Like system C, you can integrate your own IP into the

environment

Contract Service Provider Like ARM, ARC, MIPS….etc. Design can use those modules to develop the MPSoC

in free and not illegal

http://www.ovpworld.org/about_partners.php

Advantage of OVP

Both of then are free, but Great for multiprocessor platforms with arbitrary shared

and local memory configurations. Simulation of processors with virtual memory with

almost no performance penalty. Peripheral Simulation Engine (PSE) Fast

。 2,000 MIPS

Different between QEMU

OVP comprises three components OVP modules OVP API OVP sim

OVP modules C source of models written to C OVP APIs Processor models of ARM, ARC, MIPS, OpenRisc,

PowerPC, Renesas, SPARC, x86, … Peripheral models of standard embedded devices Example embedded platforms in C, C++, SystemC,

TLM2.0。Including full platforms that boot operating systems like

uClinux, Linux, Nucleus, MicriumuC/OS-II, FreeRTOS

Content of OVP

OVP API has 4 API for use ICM – to create the platform VMI – to create the processor PPM and BHM – to setup the modules

OVP sim use to simulation Simple C API , ICM API can be use System C ,C++ ,TLM modules also can be use

Content of OVP(cont.)

Example

Example

Environment fie

C program

Demo file

Example

Example: Linux running on MIPS32

OVP can be use in hardware/software co simulation

Multiprocessor can be run and simulation But for us, we need to rewrite the IP into C or

System C modules, the cost here is in large Maybe can be use

Demo Simple verification

Conclusion