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Emulation and verification framework for MPSoC based on NoC and RISC-V

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Abstract

Nowadays, embedded systems have multiprocessing capabilities to meet the complexity of modern applications, such as signal processing and multimedia. However, as the embedded system’s functionality expands, complexity increases and numerous constraints become necessary. Constraints, such as high performance, low power consumption, and development time, became critical demands. Therefore, emulation and verification are necessary to assess the correctness and performance of such architectures and accelerate the development phase. We propose a robust, scalable, and flexible hardware-software emulation framework that focuses on design space exploration for MPSoC architectures. Our framework supports 2D and 3D NoC-based architectures built on an open-source RISC-V. According to user configuration, the framework auto-generates the corresponding universal verification methodology environment to explore the design space, evaluate the performance, and compare the results for wide configurations and parameters. Then, it provides the best solution based on provided user criteria. Our framework uses an emulation co-modeling technology to enable the designer to explore and detect architecture failures. We provide numerous experimental results for different 2D and 3D NoC architectures to assess their correctness and performance, including energy and power consumption. Noticeably, results show an acceleration by \(40\times \) in comparison to software simulators.

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Data-sets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the first author upon reasonable request.

Notes

  1. The length of time from the idea of a product until its availability on consumer markets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. STMicroelectronics, Cairo, Egypt

    Mostafa Khamis

  2. Department of Computer and Systems Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

    Sameh El-Ashry & M. Watheq El-Kharashi

  3. Siemens Digital Industries Software, Siemens EDA, Cairo, Egypt

    Mohamed AbdElsalam

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, V8P 5C2, Canada

    M. Watheq El-Kharashi

  5. Department of Computer Science, Benha University, Benha, Egypt

    Ahmed Shalaby

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  1. Mostafa Khamis
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Correspondence to M. Watheq El-Kharashi.

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Khamis, M., El-Ashry, S., AbdElsalam, M. et al. Emulation and verification framework for MPSoC based on NoC and RISC-V. Des Autom Embed Syst 26, 133–159 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10617-022-09265-1

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