Simics Product Over View
Simics Product Over View
Electronic systems are becoming increasingly complex, with multiple processor architectures, multilay-
ered software stacks, and more connectivity. With more connections comes additional security risk, which
needs to be tested thoroughly. Compounding the challenge is the fact that developers have turned to DevOps
and continuous development practices to meet customer and company expectations for quick deliveries.
Such methodologies rely on fast iterations for test, feedback, and deployment. Collaborative and cross-func-
tional teams need tools to communicate and share a common development baseline.
Wind River® Simics® allows developers to have on-demand access to any target system at any time. It en-
ables more efficient collaboration between developers and quality assurance teams. Simics provides an au-
tomation API, enabling organizations to reap the business benefits of DevOps and continuous development
practices to create and deliver better, more secure software, faster—even for complex, embedded, connected,
and large IoT systems.
Virtual Serial,
Keyboard,
Target Software Stack
Middleware Graphics
Wind River
Model Library
Drivers, BSP, Firmware, RTOS
Off-the-Shelf
Hypervisor Other Tools
Such as Sim,
Wind River Debug, Test
Hardware
Network
Virtual
Ecosystem
Simics Core
CC++, SystemC
Python, DML
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Wind River Simics
for all developers. Ultimately, developers can adopt a much more agile way of working and can dramatically reduce the
risks to a project’s schedule, budget, and quality.
Software developers use Simics to simulate nearly anything, from a single chip up to complete systems and networks
of any size or complexity. A Simics simulation of a target system can run unmodified target software. That includes
the same boot loader, basic input-output system (BIOS), firmware, operating system, board support package (BSP),
middleware, and applications as the hardware. With fault injection in a simulated system, security threats can be tested
in a safe and controlled environment. Developers and testers can reap the benefits of developing against this virtual
hardware, even before the hardware is available.
Simics provides access to, visibility into, and control over all boards and processor cores in the system. Single-stepping
forward and in reverse applies to the system as a whole; the whole system can be inspected and debugged as a unit.
Furthermore, a checkpoint—or snapshot—can be created, capturing the entire system state. This state can be passed
to another developer, who can then inspect the precise hardware and software state, replay recorded executions, and
continue execution as if it had never stopped.
Simics virtual platforms are easier to configure and manage than physical hardware. With the infinite supply of each
type of board, scalability testing can go beyond what is possible with physical hardware. Also, developers and testers
can inject faults into any part of the system in a nondestructive and repeatable manner. And Simics can simulate sys-
tems containing hundreds of processors with a performance level that enables real software target loads to execute.
For developers who support many different configurations of their target hardware, a Simics virtual platform makes it
easy to manage multiple configurations of components, which is especially useful for compatibility testing and testing
specific customer scenarios.
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Wind River Simics
Design
• Explore system design choices and hardware/software interfaces, before silicon is locked down.
• Evolve the product over generations—start with the last generation, and implement the next generation functional-
ity, component by component. Experiment with hardware and software variations, and analyze impacts.
Develop
Develop, debug, and test low-level software, BSPs, and OS configurations even when hardware is not available, and
without the constraints of physical hardware.
• Provide all application developers with virtual target hardware to enable testing on the real system at any time.
• Leverage advanced debugging capabilities such as checkpoints, record, replay, reverse debugging, and advanced
code and hardware breakpoints.
Start testing and automation early in the development process. Do continuous hardware and software integration
early, on virtual hardware, expanding to physical hardware as it becomes available.
• Build more levels of intermediate setups than are available with hardware, to facilitate continuous integration.
• Test fault tolerance with Simics fault injection. Cover corner cases that cannot be reached in hardware.
• Nondestructive security testing allows you to test, reset, and test again as many times as needed without damage
to the system.
• Automate and parallelize testing and expand coverage of target configurations using Simics scripting.
• Save developer time, reduce waiting time to run tests, and shorten feedback loops by using simulation labs in
addition to hardware labs.
• Do test and integration on the entire system by integrating Simics models of computer hardware with external
models of the physical world or system environment.
• Automate regression testing and continuous integration by tying Simics into existing workflows of software build
and test.
Deliver
• Enable partners and ecosystems by sharing the complete virtual system, or parts of it.
• Keep the ecosystem updated as the system evolves with new hardware and software.
Maintain
Aid customer support by setting up a virtual lab and equipping geographically distributed teams with a virtual equiva-
lent of the end product.
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Wind River Simics
• Create virtual configurations matching customer system configurations to investigate issues and aid support.
• Maintain legacy products indefinitely without worrying about hardware obsolescence and decommissioning.
Engineering Resources
Resources
Product
Costs
Quality
Risks
Reduced Time-to-Market
Software Increased Revenue
Software
• Run the same software on Simics that runs on the • Integrate physics and environment simulators to build
physical target. complete system simulations. Or have Wind River
Professional Services do it for you.
• Enable everyone with access to the virtual system—
within teams, across teams, and with partners and • Use the Simics Eclipse-based, C/C++ source code
your ecosystem. debugger, or use your standard software toolset.
• Analyze and debug the full system as a unit, not just • Use a prepackaged virtual platform from Wind River,
as a single board. build your own, or have Wind River Professional Ser-
vices build one for you.
• Debug efficiently by running the simulation forward or
in reverse.
Wind River is a global leader of software for the intelligent edge. Its technology has been powering the safest, most secure devices since 1981 and is in billions of products. Wind River is accelerating
the digital transformation of mission-critical intelligent systems that demand the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability.
© 2021 Wind River Systems, Inc. The Wind River logo is a trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc., and Wind River and VxWorks are registered trademarks of Wind River Systems, Inc. Rev. 01/2021