1140: Enabling True System-Level, Mixed-Signal Emulation

Emulation is ubiquitous for verifying and validating complex silicon systems of today's age, comprising of a full software stack driving highly intricate hardware. However, as some of these silicon systems move towards the edge, the underlying hardware becomes exceedingly mixed-signal with the integration of sensors, real-world interfaces, high-speed data convertors, buck/boost regulators, etc. Traditional emulation techniques only support synthesizable digital logic. As a result, the scope of what can be verified or validated, and to what extent is somewhat limited. This means that software driven chip configuration that goes all the way down to a primitive hardware elements or complex calibration loops and low power techniques involving the full software stack, cannot be fully verified prior to tapeout. This is an absolute necessity in today’s complex systems at cutting edge manufacturing technologies owing to the cost of unplanned tape-outs and the pressure of delivering first-pass sampleable silicon to customers. The novel techniques presented in this paper focus on taking away this limitation and enabling analog/mixed-signal behavioral modeling methods, thereby enabling "true" system-level, mixed-signal emulation.