A Renaissance in the Emulation Business Is Nigh

It is reasonable to predict that hardware-assisted verification revenue will break through $600 million by the end of 2019.

By Jean-Marie Brunet and Lauro Rizzatti
EETimes (December 16, 2019)

Hardware emulation was conceived in the mid-1980s by a few pioneers who identified an opportunity for field programmable gate-array (FPGA), then a new type of device. They envisioned building prototypes of digital designs by interconnecting several FPGAs in large arrays before the actual silicon was returned by the foundry. Two companies emerged with working solutions, Quickturn Design Systems and IKOS Systems, giving birth to a new industry.

For the first 10 years, hardware emulation remained a niche business with a questionable future. While the concept was promising, the actual implementation was a minefield of issues — and its deployment a nightmare — requiring technical experts with multiple degrees in various disciplines.

It took years to improve and ease the deployment. All along, brilliant engineers devised solutions to alleviate the problems via software enhancements and/or hardware architectural innovations.

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