Wind River Simics

Simulate Anything, Chip to System

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.

DEVELOP SOFTWARE IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

Simics provides the access, automation, and collaboration required to enable DevOps and continuous development
practices. By using virtual platforms and simulation, software developers can decouple their work from physical hard-
ware and its limitations during development. Access to virtual hardware allows developers to do continuous integra-
tion and automated testing much sooner in the development cycle—even before the hardware design is finalized—as
well as perform both testing and debugging during design and prototyping phases. All team members can have
unlimited access to virtual hardware, allowing new ways of working and improved collaboration throughout the lifecy-
cle. Virtual hardware can be shipped anywhere, at any time, improving collaboration and ensuring a common baseline

Virtual Serial,
Keyboard,
Target Software Stack

Application Software Mouse,

Simics Virtual Platform

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

Processors Memory Storage Devices

and I/O
Customers Real-World
Equipment

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.

MAXIMIZE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT VELOCITY THROUGH ACCESS,

COLLABORATION, AND AUTOMATION
Simics enables more efficient development and higher velocity for development and testing. With seamless and
reliable access to the Simics virtual hardware platform, teams can refine in real time; iterate continuously; and move
through design, development, and test quickly to build their system incrementally. Simics improves team communi-
cation by providing an environment where team members can share actual running systems and system setups with
each other, rather than documenting and describing system setups and software behavior. Furthermore, Simics helps
shorten development and testing cycles by automating what is impossible to automate with physical hardware.

OPTIMIZE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Complex and connected systems are difficult to debug and manage. While traditional development tools can help you
track down bugs related to a single board or software process, finding a bug in a system of many boards and processor
cores is a daunting task. For example, if you stop one process or thread with a traditional debugger, other parts in the
system continue to execute, making it impossible to get a globally coherent view of the target system state.

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.

ON-DEMAND VIRTUAL LABS

One of the biggest obstacles with developing, debugging, integrating, and testing an electronic system is that target
hardware and physical labs are not always available for everyone in an operational state, or they are subject to long
waiting times to access. This limited access means engineers have to make do with less-than-ideal substitutes such as
reference boards or host-based development. With Simics, you can build a virtual lab that is on demand—available for
any team member, at any point in time, at any location in the world, and with any amount of hardware. Furthermore, the
virtual lab is not just a piece of the system; it can be the complete system. This capability allows users to do their work
in the context of a complete system instead of just a part of it.

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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SUPPORT CONTINUOUS PRACTICES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PRODUCT

LIFECYCLE
Simics supports the entire product lifecycle, from design through product deployment and maintenance.

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.

• Parallelize and reduce dependencies between software and hardware development.

• 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.

Integrate and Test

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.

• Distribute and share customer-specific configurations easily.

• 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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• Create virtual configurations matching customer system configurations to investigate issues and aid support.

• Maintain legacy products indefinitely without worrying about hardware obsolescence and decommissioning.

Traditional Product Lifecycle Product Lifecycle with Simics

Engineering Resources

Engineering Resources
Resources
Product
Costs
Quality
Risks

Reduced Time-to-Market
Software Increased Revenue
Software

Hardware Integration Hardware Integration

and Test and Test

Time and Risks Time and Risks

SUPPORTED TARGET ARCHITECTURES

• Arm®, 32-bit and 64-bit

• Intel® Architecture, 32-bit and 64-bit

• Power, 32-bit and 64-bit

KEY SIMICS CAPABILITIES

• Immediately run a simulation of popular target archi- • Automate manual steps and repetitive tasks with full
tectures using the built-in Quick Start Platforms for scripting capability.
Arm, Intel, and PowerPC® that come with Simics.
• Integrate with your existing software development
• Simulate your target system, including processors, environment and automated workflows. Or have Wind
devices, full boards, and systems. River Professional Services do it for you.

• 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.

• Share system state, execution history, and virtual

hardware setups with anyone, anywhere.

• Resume execution from the exact point at which you

last saved it.

• Inject faults to test system robustness and test diag-

nostic software.

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