Imperas partners with Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V

New Integrated Development Environment for RISC-V includes Imperas simulator and reference model as a fixed platform kit for software development and architectural analysis

Oxford, United Kingdom, August 30, 2022 — Imperas Software Ltd., the leader in RISC-V simulation solutions, today announced a strategic alliance with Intel® regarding Intel® Pathfinder for RISC-V*. Imperas has designed an integrated reference model and simulator as a fixed platform kit to support the growing ecosystem of RISC V. Imperas models are the established reference for RISC V and are now included as a fixed virtual platform as part of the Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V Professional Edition.

RISC-V is an open standard ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) that offers designers new freedoms to configure a custom processor with standard extensions and configuration options plus custom instructions. Imperas simulation and reference model technology supports the latest RISC-V ratified and close to ratified draft specifications as a full configurable envelope model. The high quality and dependable reference model was developed for use in hardware verification use cases such as compliance, verification and test development, plus as software development targets for firmware, drivers, OS porting and application development.

The Imperas simulator with proprietary just-in-time code-morphing simulation technology can be integrated within other standard EDA environments such as SystemC, SystemVerilog, and well-known simulation/emulation tools from Cadence, Siemens EDA, and Synopsys plus the cloud-based offering from Metrics Technologies. Imperas RISC-V reference models of many commercial RISC V processor cores are also available via approved EDA distribution partners. To explore this option in more detail, please contact Imperas or your preferred EDA supplier.

The Imperas simulation technology is complemented with a rich library of over 350 processor and virtual platforms, plus over 250 peripheral components all available from www.OVPworld.org for free under an Apache 2.0 open-source license. These library elements can be configured and modified as necessary to model the target platform requirements. Imperas Fixed Platform Kits (FPK) allow delivery of pre-configured platform models as a binary installation within friction free installation without licencing management or complex installation set-up.

“With all the design freedoms and configurability that RISC-V offers, early software development and architectural analysis is critical for optimised hardware and software co-design,” said Simon Davidmann, CEO at Imperas Software Ltd. “We are pleased to work with Intel on the Intel Pathfinder, since this not just helps the design process with a “shift-left” for early software development, it enables the entire industry to innovate with RISC-V and accelerate the time-to-volume schedules.”

“The adoption of RISC-V is at an inflexion point across multiple markets and applications, and Intel fully appreciates that a healthy software ecosystem is critical for this new ISA to be successful,” said Vijay Krishnan, General Manager, RISC-V Ventures from Intel. “The availability of Imperas RISC-V reference models for the Professional Edition of Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V further strengthens the tools available to developers as new silicon designs move from concept to production.”

Availability

The OVPworld.org resources of processor models, peripheral components and virtual platforms also have a number of Fixed Platform Kits (FPK) that are pre-configured and ready to use. Users of the Intel Pathfinder Professional Edition can download the Imperas RISC-V Virtio Linux platform FPK for software development for baremetal, RTOS, or Linux based applications at
https://www.OVPworld.org/imperasRISCVvirtio

About Imperas

Imperas is the leading provider of RISC-V processor models, hardware design verification solutions, and virtual prototypes for software simulation. Imperas, along with Open Virtual Platforms (OVP), promotes open-source model availability for a spectrum of processors, IP vendors, CPU architectures, system IP and reference platform models of processors and systems ranging from simple single core bare metal platforms to full heterogeneous multi-core systems booting SMP Linux. All models are available from Imperas at www.imperas.com and the Open Virtual Platforms (OVP) website at www.OVPworld.org.
For more information about Imperas, please see www.imperas.com.