CoMET and METeor by VaST Systems Technology

Product Description

VaST supplies simulation technology that allows ARM processor-based platforms consisting of ARM processors, buses, peripherals (and perhaps other processors such as DSPs) to be simulated orders of magnitude faster than with ISS-style technologies. ARM processors run at speeds of over 100 MIPS on an off-the-shelf PC. Virtual platforms, surrogates for eventual ARM processor-based systems, can be used early in the design cycle for architectural exploration, and, once an optimum platform has been finalized, can be used by embedded software developers to create and debug the code that will run on the platform. By assessing the platform early in the design cycle, a company can avoid both over-engineering a system (for example, having caches too large) or developing a system that does not finally measure up (for example, caches too small). And by paralizing hardware and software development, a company can bring a system to market months ahead of alternate approaches.

VaST’s CoMET System Engineering Environment enables system architects to create and analyze platforms. It simulates ARM processor-based platforms at high speed and with cycle-accuracy. This allows architects to create candidate architectures for their systems-on-chips and analyze them accurately using a full software load including operating systems, protocol stacks, device drivers and other hardware-related and real-time software components. With cycle-accurate modeling, CoMET produces meaningful quantitative results for both timing and power dissipation. Architects can home in on the optimum balance of speed, power and cost (size). CoMET is used during chip hardware development for co-verification of RTL along software and other components modeled at the system-level.

VaST’s METeor Software Development Environment allows embedded software developers to create code using a virtual system prototype that runs at near real-time speeds on an off-the-shelf PC. METeor thus forms a pure software implementation of a development board and its in-circuit emulator. It interfaces to familiar ARM compilers and debuggers simplifying the transition from the old hardware-based approaches and avoids the schedule-risk and inaccuracy of host-based development, writing once and porting twice.

The combination of CoMET for system architects and METeor for embedded software developers results in a better ARM based solution delivered sooner.

CoMET and METeor

Market Segment(s)

• Embedded
• Enterprise
• Home
• Mobile

ARM Processor(s)

• ARM7EJ-S
• ARM7TDMI
• ARM7TDMI-S
• ARM720T
• ARM920T
• ARM922T
• ARM926EJ-S
• ARM940T
• ARM946E-S
• ARM966E-S
• VFP9-S
• ARM1026EJ-S
• ARM1136J-S
• ARM1136JF-S
• Cortex-A53
• Cortex-A57
• ARMv8
• XScale