Embedded Systems and Communications Research Group, University of Leicester
The lack of electronic design automation (EDA) tools combining model flexibility, and fast and accurate evaluation of performance, power, and reliability is one of the major challenges currently faced by embedded researchers. Even expensive, commercially available tools don't often meet modeling and simulation needs for emerging technologies.The description of processors – i.e., register or gate-level – is rarely available to universities, and commercial licenses are quite expensive. Having free tools with different state-of-the-art processor models allows the exploration of new system architectures.
Rick O’Connor, Executive Director
RISC-V Foundation
The free and open nature of the RISC-V ISA fosters unprecedented levels of processor innovation. To harness this design freedom, the ecosystem requires robust development tools and the assurance that verification test benches can be developed and validated on supplier-neutral platforms. Imperas’ new riscvOVPsim is an important suite of tools that addresses this challenge.