DreamBig Virtual Prototyping Platform
DreamBig Semiconductor (DBS) stands out as a player in the semiconductor sector, established by a group of visionaries with a solid history in the industry.
DreamBig has transformed the semiconductor-based data processing and networking industry by offering low-cost, low-latency, high-throughput solutions using cutting-edge chiplet technology by way of its MARS Chiplet Platform built around the Deimos Chiplet Hub™. Beyond the bleeding edge chiplet design philosophy, DreamBig is also redefining how the semiconductor industry validates large silicon design projects with its Virtual Prototyping Platform (VPP). DreamBig’s VPP, which enables different ecosystem partners to develop and test customized chiplet solutions together in a single environment, allows for early architectural exploration, design validation, and chiplet interoperability testing. All of which support the goal of an earlier time-to-market.
The DreamBig Chiplet Hub™ Virtual Prototyping Platform (VPP) is a functionally accurate software platform which emulates DBS MARS chiplets and provides a virtual environment where heterogeneous chiplets can be connected to form a complete System-in-Package. It enables virtual prototyping or hardware/software co-development of silicon chiplets. The VPP allows end-to-end system flows to be executed from a host down to an end-point device in different system configurations. Compared to traditional verification environments, VPP allows unmodified host applications and real-world use-case scenarios to be emulated and tested in a fully software-based environment with faster simulation runs. Because the VPP is primarily intended for functional modeling (not cycle-accurate modeling), it’s built using a set of transaction-level models. Each model has the notion of transaction objects that traverse the models as the VPP is clocked.
VPP is designed in a modular fashion and supports multiple ways of interconnecting the chiplet models. The range of interfaces that are supported by VPP allow easy integration of heterogeneous models from different chiplet vendors making it an ideal system for interoperability testing. As a base, each model interface abstracts the details of bus protocols and handshaking signals for a fast and functionally accurate emulation. However, any model interface may be extended to provide additional interface details as needed.
VPP offers many advantages including:
A simulation environment to verify and validate designs using unmodified real-world applications running on standard operating systems
A hardware simulation platform which runs much faster than traditional verification environments
Early validation of system architecture with end-to-end flows.
Early development of system software such as device drivers
Testbed for application-specific host software
Re-use of unmodified host software as a means of providing stimulus to pre-silicon hardware design
Integration of different proprietary chiplet models developed using different languages including pure C model, SystemC, to RTL models