Accellera Systems Initiative is an independent, not-for profit organization dedicated to create, support, promote, and advance system-level design, modeling, and verification standards for use by the worldwide electronics industry. We are composed of a broad range of members that fully support the work of our technical committee to develop technology standards that are balanced, open, and benefit the worldwide electronics industry. Leading companies and semiconductor manufacturers around the world are using our electronic design automation (EDA) and intellectual property (IP) standards in a wide range of projects in numerous application areas to develop consumer, mobile, wireless, automotive, and other “smart” electronic devices. Through an ongoing partnership with the IEEE, standards and technical implementations developed by Accellera Systems Initiative are contributed to the IEEE for formal standardization and ongoing governance.

Automatic generation of Device Driver and Programmer’s Reference Manual from PSS

Monday, March 4, 2024 1:30 pm — 3:00 pm

Freddy Nunez, Applications Engineer, Agnisys Inc.; Neena Chandawale, Applications Engineer, Agnisys Inc.

Embedded systems projects pose significant challenges due to tight schedules and frequent hardware and software redesigns. Creating IP/SoC and their device drivers, especially for diverse components like image sensors and processors, with 10’s of 1000’s of registers, operating modes and configurations, is time-consuming and error-prone. Informal communication between hardware and software teams further complicates the process, exacerbated by the need for drivers compatible with various operating systems.

To address these challenges, an innovative solution involves automatically generating not just the IP/SOC RTL but also their device driver code. This approach aims to enhance communication between teams by helping them collaborate using the industry standard such as PSS and SystemRDL. The generated sequences support multiple environments, including UVM and C++, reducing the effort required for individual driver development and ensuring compatibility across different environments.

Having a common understanding of the programming sequences not only helps the project move faster towards first pass silicon success but also helps reach the complete system development milestone faster. The Programmer’s Reference Manual is a product of this automation which enables the firmware and software teams to deliver the system software earlier in the development process.