EDA Tech Forum

There is a growing productivity gap in the design of embedded systems. One recent survey estimated that the number of lines of embedded code written per year is growing at a rate of 46% a year, although the number of developers available to write it is growing at only 7.5%.

The problem is further compounded by the facts that embedded systems are now ubiquitous in their use across a number of markets with stringent cost, time-to-market and reliability requirements, and that traditional hardware-centric methodologies introduce inefficiencies and high risks of failure to the design flow by requiring multiple iterations.

A major issue here is the use of multiple models for the processor used at the heart of embedded system design. The article highlights an alternative methodology already gaining traction in key markets based on software virtual prototyping and an appropriate, individual, cycle-accurate, high performance processor model that can deliver greater reliability and speed project flows by enabling hardware/software co-design.