Evaluation Process of Emulation Platforms

Abstract

Emulators are hardware that has the same constraints as most hardware does. They tend to deprecate over time. For this reason, there is a need to update them regularly to keep up with the demands of current and future system on chip (SoC)development. The objective of the thesis is to describe the process step by step of how the most suitable emulator is chosen and what kinds of requirements and practicalities there are to be considered. Requirements were gathered from previous evaluations and from the meetings held regarding the evaluation process here at Nokia to update them to represent current needs. System on Chip (SoC) development involves integrating various digital system components onto a single chip, which offers benefits such as improved power efficiency, performance, size, cost, and reliability. However, the increased complexity of SoCs presents significant challenges for developers and impacts the time-to-market (TTM). Emulation is crucial in modern SoC development, as it allows for thorough testing and debugging before the physical manufacturing of the chip, thereby mitigating costly errors and delays. The result of this thesis was a description of the evaluation process and what was done during the process. This serves as documentation and as an aid for future evaluation processes.