Graphics & Video
Video and graphics chips or blocks of intellectual property (IP) always present challenges due to the sheer amount of cycles required to run any significant images through the chip. With the advent of high-definition, the amount of data handled by the chip has dramatically increased, making traditional simulation of full-frame HDTV impractical. One HDTV frame (1920x1080i) typically requires several million cycles of simulation, and one second of real time video at 30 frames per second requires 100 million cycles. As a result, designers have resorted to tricks to shorten the simulation time by scaling down the size of the images being processed, but simulation still takes too long even when using images the size of postage stamps. Adding a farm of simulators will not even help when simulating sequences of frames.
Accelerated simulation using ZeBu, however, gives hardware designers the capability to verify video data in frames per second instead of frames per hour or day. ZeBu runs at MHz speed – faster than any other verification solution on the market, and fast enough to actually view video frames in motion.
EVE graphics/video customers include ATI, ST, Tensilica, Philips, LSI Logic, Northrop Grumman, and CEA, spanning applications from HDTV video and H.264 to MPEG.4 encoding/decoding. EVE further provides validation IP for multimedia applications including transaction-based interfaces for LCD displays, memory models such as SDR, DDR, DDR2 and DIMM DRAM, LCD displays and PCI Express. EVE also supports connecting software debuggers to perform HW/SW co-verification of firmware together with hardware validation.
SEE ALSO
- Solution: Transaction-Based Verification
- Success Story: Gennum
- Demos: MPEG-4 Decoder
- Datasheet: MultiMedia Board
- Datasheet: LCD Transactor
- Datasheet: PCE Express Transactor
- Datasheet: DRAM Models
- Success Story: Tensilica
Graphics chip verification application using ZeBu
As an example, Gennum Corporation is using ZeBu-XL to verify the picture-in-picture (PIP) and de-interlacing functionality of its HDTV video processor. Two high-definition video sequences are streamed to the design mapped in ZeBu-XL, and the resulting video is streamed out to the host PC and displayed in a window. By achieving multiple MHz in emulation speed, the system generates a frame every few seconds, which makes it easy for Gennum to verify long video sequences and ensure no invalid video artifacts are generated by the chip.
Graphics chip verification application using ZeBu