Toward Fast Heterogeneous Virtual Prototypes: Increasing the Solver Efficiency in SystemC AMS

Abstract

The development of modern heterogeneous systems requires early integration of the various domains to improve and verify the design. Heterogeneous virtual prototypes are a key enabler to reach this goal. In order to efficiently support the development, their high simulation speed is of utmost importance. This article introduces measures to speed-up SystemC analog/mixed-signal (AMS) simulations which are commonly used to simulate the AMS part jointly with the digital prototype in SystemC. Two approaches to integrate variable-step ordinary differential equation solvers into the simulation semantics of SystemC AMS are presented. Both of them avoid global backtracking. One is well suited for feedback loops and the other is favorable for systems dynamically reacting onto events. Moreover, a timestep quantization is developed that overcomes the recurrent matrix inversion bottleneck of variable-step implicit solvers. A similar method is then used to increase the simulation speed of electrical linear network models with high switching activity. Various experiments from the context of smart sensors are presented which prove the effectiveness for enhancing the simulation speed.