1. Virtual Platforms Driving Software Quality in Pre-Silicon
SOFTWARE QUALITY CONFERENCE
PACIFIC NW
Virtual Platforms Driving Software Quality in Pre-Silicon
AMITH PULLA 10/09/2018
PNSQC 2018
PNSQC ™

2. Introduction Technical Program Manager at Intel
SOFTWARE QUALITY CONFERENCE
Introduction
PACIFIC NW
Technical Program Manager at Intel
Involved in software development, testing strategies and processes
Works on virtual platform development and software validation
Worked with Agile development methodology (Scrum and Scaled Agile Framework)
PMP, CSTE in 2006 and CSM in 2012
PNSQC ™

3. Virtual Prototyping Software-based engineering discipline
SOFTWARE QUALITY CONFERENCE
PACIFIC NW
Software-based engineering discipline
Modelling a system using software tools
Models used for Simulation
Visualizing its behavior under real-world operating conditions
Refining its design through an iterative process
Applications:
Mobile software development and validation
Semiconductor Industry (Hardware platform development)
Automotive industry
Mechanical Engineering
PNSQC ™

4. Hardware Development Lifecycle
SOFTWARE QUALITY CONFERENCE
PACIFIC NW
Spec Freeze
Tape Out
Silicon
Power On
Launch
Pre-Silicon (Simulation)
Post-Silicon (Actual Hardware)
Architecture and Design
Hardware Development
Manufacture
Software Development, Integration and Validation
PNSQC ™

5. System Hardware

6. Key Capabilities of Virtual Platforms
Flexible and configurable, no restrictions of physical hardware for developers/architects
Non-intrusively debug and inspect complex systems, can execute a system in forward and reverse direction for easy debugging
Provides an abstract, executable representation of the hardware to SW/FW developers
Runs unmodified target software from the physical target system (BIOS, FW, OS, BSP, middleware, applications)

7. Key Advantages of Virtual Platforms for Software
Early software development on pre-RTL models, before silicon, RTL simulation, FPGA prototype is available
Enables SW testing, debugging, find and fix SW/FW bugs in Pre-Silicon
Improves collaboration between hardware and software design teams
Platform SW/FW Completeness and Validation before PO (Power On)
Path Clearing for SLE (System Level Emulation) Models
Enables external hardware OEMs and ODMs to start SW/FW development early
Replicable on compute platforms and shared across distributed teams
Applications and Workloads qualification in pre-silicon

8. HW Development Shift-Left

9. Software Stack Example
Applications/Workloads
Application Framework
Libraries, Complier and Runtime
OS Kernel (display, audio, wifi, camera etc.)
Source:

10. Enabling SW Stack in Pre-Silicon
BIOS/UEFI Development
SW and FW Stack Development
Driver Development
OS Enabling (Windows, Linux, ESXi)
Workloads Optimization
Workload Characterization

11. Thank You! Amith David Pulla Twitter @pamith
SOFTWARE QUALITY CONFERENCE
PACIFIC NW
Amith David Pulla
LinkedIn:
PNSQC ™