It was a little over a year ago that Electronics360 reported on Siemens’ integration of a “shift left” approach — the principle of identifying and addressing testability issues at the earliest possible stages — to its portfolio of silicon lifestyle solutions, with its Tessent portfolio as a prime example.
Now, with the introduction of the Innexis product suite, the company is bringing that same approach to its Veloce hardware-assisted verification and validation system.
Siemens states that adoption of a shift-left approach for software development and IP verification processes is now mandatory. Source: Siemens Digital Industries Software Siemens said Veloce has already been met with success and rapid adoption. The new Innexis products include a hardware/software development flow from virtual to hybrid to full RTL, an architecture native virtual platform for early high-speed software development and a simulation backplane that enables the development of digital twins in Siemens’ PAVE360 software for software-defined vehicles and other complex systems.
Currently, the Innexis product suite consists of:
Innexis Developer Pro: Innexis Developer Pro software provides a connected development flow from virtual to hybrid to full RTL. This provides a comprehensive environment for accelerating the creation of complex SoC design supporting a wide range of use-cases including seamless hardware-software co-development, co-validation and pre-silicon cycle accurate analysis and validation. Innexis Developer Pro supports the modeling of complex SoC’s with heterogeneous cores and custom SystemC model components. In addition, it provides the ability to run in both virtual plus RTL hybrid mode for high performance execution, and then switch to full RTL emulation enabling high accuracy analysis of the full SoC when required.
Innexis Architecture Native Acceleration (ANA): Innexis Architecture Native Acceleration software is a cloud-based high-speed virtual platform. By running natively on Arm-based servers, the software workloads run at much higher speeds than on typical instruction set simulation based virtual platforms. Cloud hosting also provides scalable compute resources and simple browser-based access and tools. Innexis Architecture Native Acceleration can also run on local Arm-based servers if preferred. In both cases it enables early software development and testing, and early software defect identification.
Innexis Virtual System Interconnect: Innexis Virtual System Interconnect software facilitates the creation and simulation of comprehensive system level digital twin platforms by seamlessly connecting multi-behavioral virtual and physical subsystems, supporting a variety of communication protocols. Innexis Virtual System Interconnect behavioral models can include Innexis Developer Pro or Innexis Architecture Native Acceleration SoC models, supporting system-level shift-left software development and RTL verification.
Siemens states that adoption of a shift-left approach for software development and IP verification processes is now mandatory: As chip designs become increasingly complex due to more demanding software workloads, it is critical to enable the development and execution of realistic workloads early in the design phase. A proactive shift-left software approach helps mitigate the risk of identifying issues late in the development cycle.
