Fujitsu Announces Fast Cycle-for-Cycle ARM CPU Simulator

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By Douglas Perry
published

The design and development of ARM processors could receive a boost with a new ARM core simulator that was announced by Fujitsu.

The company claims it now has the world's fastest ARM core simulation technology.

Fujitsu's simulation technology is based on a JIT compiler that enables hardware designers to run cycle-level simulations of multicore ARM processors that can be executed on a "standard PC" Fujitsu says that the system runs at "more than 100 MHz" and is more than 100 times faster than previous simulators. The margin of error is +/- 5 percent in respect of the actual hardware.

Since ARM cores are widely used for smartphones, tablets and future entry-level PCs, Fujitsu believes that its simulator will result in shorter development cycles as well as a greater variety of ARM-based systems. The company said that it intends to continue its development and make its simulator both faster and more accurate.

Douglas Perry
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5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • kenyee
    Dammit...I need this for the Android simulator which is slow as molasses when running AVDs....Like nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! :-)
    Reply
  • classzero
    kenyeeDammit...I need this for the Android simulator which is slow as molasses when running AVDs....Like nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! :-)
    Agreed, the slow Android SDK forced me to buy an Android. I only use it for developing but they got me to buy one.
    Reply
  • GreaseMonkey_62
    Sounds cool.
    Reply
  • NapoleonDK
    I work for a company that writes simulation software like this. Granted, I'm in IT, not a programmer...but it's interesting when news like this comes out about our competitors. Kinda gets my blood pumping. XD We put out stuff that ranges from chip design, to PCB layout, to wiring harness routing and cabling.

    The full article: http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2012/20120313-02.html

    Sounds like this software will simulate the circuit-level responses of the ARM core to an environment you're developing. (e.g. build a Raspberry Pi, find out if you have enough address space to write to the display buffer...)

    Edit: Epic link fail.
    Reply
  • NapoleonDK
    Also, I'm dumb. It's for code. Shame on me for not reading the whole article before I linked it. XD
    Reply