Space Codesign Introduces the First Virtual Platform Technology Supporting Hardware/Software Codesign for FPGA Based on ARM Cortex-A9

SpaceStudio 2.2, the Electronic System Level (ESL) design tool, now includes support for dual ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor cores, enabling electronic design engineers to drive a shorter embedded systems design cycle and create higher performance efficient FPGAs.

Montreal, Quebec - November 1st, 2011 -- Space Codesign® Systems announced today the support for ARM-based FPGA design in its SpaceStudio™ 2.2 virtual platform technology. Pioneering hardware/software co-design technology enables electronic engineers to enjoy a higher level of abstraction and executable representation for embedded systems design in commercial multimedia applications. System architects and design engineers can now efficiently exploit the high performance ARM Cortex-A9 dual MPCore, and easily define which code can be moved from hardware to software using sophisticated hardware/software partitioning based on their needs.

SpaceStudio™ 2.2’s virtual platform technology features new libraries with the ARM Cortex-A9 dual MPCore processor and AMBA bus architecture that will be useful for the ESL design implementation of the upcoming Xilinx Zynq (Extensible Processing Platform) family. Tailored to system architects and software developers, SpaceStudio™ 2.2 will serve as a comprehensive Electronic System Level (ESL) tool that covers the early and middle System-On-Chip (SoC) design cycle. “The ARM Cortex-A9 processor has become an industry standard when powerful processing is needed from the ARM architecture,” said Guy Bois, Ph.D., P. Eng., and President of Space Codesign® Systems. “SpaceStudio 2.2 is there to assist engineers determine how to meet their specific performance requirements with the advanced functionality needed.”

From early software development to system simulation, validation, and prototyping, SpaceStudio™ can integrate with a wide variety of third party products and supports several industry standards and levels of design abstraction. A system architect and software developer can fully explore and analyze the impact of different implementation options on the performance of complex embedded systems and determine the best hardware/software partitioning using this ESL design platform.

SpaceStudio™ 2.2 was previewed at CMC Microsystems Annual Symposium this month and was received enthusiastically. The pre-release is available now to interested FPGA designers.