Virtual platform leads the way for new MIPS core: News from Virtio Corp

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Virtio Corp has introduced its latest product offering to support the newly introduced multithreading MIPS32 34K core family. The VPMM-SC virtual platform provides fast system simulation of the MIPS32 34K core-based Malta development board. virtual platforms provide software developers with a target system model that can boot an operating system and run application code long before hardware becomes available, speeding new system software development.

Filip Thoen, Chief Technology Officer for Virtio, noted: 'The 34K cores introduce multithreading to embedded systems'.

'The successful adoption of this new technology requires that system designers can evaluate in-depth the impact and benefits of this new technology and that software developers can easily take advantage of this new technology and familiarise themselves with this new software paradigm'.

'The VPMM-SC virtual platform allows software developers to quickly reconfigure the MIPS32 34K cores in a variety of different multithreading configurations and evaluate their system impact by providing detailed internal core statistics'.

'Also, software developers can familiarise themselves with the new multithreading development and debugging paradigm by the advanced visibility and control offered by a virtual platform'.

'The Virtio virtual platform is a superb tool for introducing the MIPS32 34K technology to system designers and software developers'.

'With the VPMM-SC they can easily access and evaluate the benefits of the 34K core by running complete system software loads', said Jack Browne, Vice President of Marketing at MIPS Technologies.

'By enabling pre-silicon software development, evaluation and testing, designers can bring their products to market more quickly'.

The VPMM-SC virtual platform uses a combination of C-code, graphical modelling and transaction-based modelling to replicate the full functionality of MIPS Technologies' Malta development board in a PC-based simulation.

It supports the MIPS32 4KE, 24K and 34K core family members and offers a choice of instruction-accurate and cycle-accurate CPU models.

The VPMM-SC virtual platform supports standard operating systems such as Linux and can execute binary code files that target the MALTA board and integrates with essential software development tools such as Green Hills Multi and GDB debuggers.

The VPMM-SC virtual platform gives software developers a jumpstart in creating and debugging both system and applications code for the MIPS32 4KE, 24K and 34K-based Malta board, but its utility continues even when hardware becomes available.

As with all of Virtio's virtual platforms, the VPMM-SC provides developers with insight into the internal operations of processor cores and peripheral hardware in ways that hardware-oriented debugging tools cannot.

Developers can examine and modify the state of internal registers and buffers that are unreachable by externally attached hardware probes.

In addition, unlike hardware-based tools, developers can control the behaviour of all processors simultaneously; through activities such as setting breakpoints in one processor that halts the execution of the entire system.

These exceptional levels of visibility and control within a multiprocessor device make the virtual platform an ideal tool for finding and resolving complex, including multithreading, software problems.

System designers and software developers can download an evaluation copy of Virtio's VPMM-SC virtual platform for the MIPS32 34K technology from the Virtio website.

Virtio's VPMM-SC virtual platform pricing starts at US $1990 and is immediately available.

The VPMM-SC platform development kit is also available now for users who need to modify the virtual platform, priced at US $9990.

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