Hardware Emulation: One Verification Tool, Unending Possibilities

By _EETimes Blog

February 2, 2015

Verification Consultant Lauro Rizzatti explains why hardware emulation really is the most versatile of verification tools.

Today, hardware emulation has become an eminently popular verification tool. Two independent reasons concurred to this success:

1. In the past few years, the emulation user community has expanded exponentially by the addition of software developers to the traditional base of hardware designers and verification engineers. Statistical data shows that the former class of users offset the latter in a ratio of well above five to one.
   
2. At the same time, uses of hardware emulation have multiplied because of its versatility as a resource for debugging both the hardware and software of complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs. Hardware emulation is the only verification tool that can be deployed in more than one mode. In fact, it can be used in four main modes, some of which can be combined for added versatility. Because of this resourcefulness, hardware emulation can be used to achieve several verification objectives.

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