SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SIMULATION OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS COMBINING HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE INTERACTION

摘要

A system for simulation of target electronic systems combining interacting elements of hardware and executing software, in part by physical emulation means and in part by abstract software simulation. A processor emulator is coupled to a hardware simulator by a communications link. The processor emulator provides the functionality of the target microprocessor while the hardware simulator simulates additional target circuitry. The processor emulator is coupled to a memory containing the target program. Most computer instructions in the target program do not require interaction with the target circuitry simulated on the hardware simulator. However, when a computer instructions requires the interaction of the target microprocessor and the target circuitry, a communications link control the communication between the target microprocessor and the target circuitry. The various components of the system can be coupled together via a conventional computer network. A translator/mappertranslates the computer data requiring the interaction between the target microprocessor and the target circuitry from the data format of the emulator to the data format of the hardware simulator. The translated data is then mapped to a set ofsimulated pins on a processor model shell in the hardware simulator.