Multiple members of FPGA, ASIC, or SoC projects can collaborate on key early decisions at a high-level of abstraction, then generate code and models to jump-start implementation.
With MATLAB and Simulink you can:
- Model and simulate a variety of architecture choices
- Refine algorithms top-down toward implementation
- Converge on fixed-point quantization
- Generate production-quality RTL and embedded C code
- Generate verification models for use in digital or analog simulation environments
- Adhere to functional safety certification workflows
“Simulink helps system architects and hardware designers communicate. It is like a shared language that enables us to exchange knowledge, ideas, and designs. Simulink and HDL Coder enable us to focus on developing our algorithms and refining our design via simulation, not on checking VHDL syntax and coding rules.”
Using MATLAB for Production Design and Verification
SoC Architecture and Top-Down Design
Algorithm developers can collaborate with system architects and digital, analog/mixed-signal, and verification engineers to explore architecture options at a high-level of abstraction. This lets you and your team experiment with partitioning strategies then incrementally refine the partitions with implementation detail such as hardware micro-architecture and fixed-point quantization. More than 300 blocks support generation of SystemVerilog, Verilog, and VHDL, spanning math operations through production-proven hardware IP blocks and subsystems.
Throughout this top-down process, you can continuously integrate more detailed models for simulation in the system context to eliminate functional and performance issues early. The process lets you create and manage suites of system-level test cases and measure model coverage so you can be confident that your implementation is successful.
Explore implementation tradeoffs at a high-level, verifying each refinement step versus the previously known, good version.
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- Improving FPGA, ASIC, and SoC Quality with Early Architecture Modeling (24:24)
- Hardware/Software Partitioning | Developing Radio Applications for RFSoC with MATLAB & Simulink, Part 3 (16:16)
- Renesas Designs and Implements Image Processing IP Core for ASICs with Model-Based Design
- Hardware Design
- Hardware Implementation of High-Performance FFT Algorithms on FPGAs (3:02)
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Generate SystemVerilog DPI or UVM components to speed verification environment creation.
Verification Model Generation
With the ASIC Testbench for HDL Verifier add-on you can export verification components directly from MATLAB and Simulink rather than by writing a Verilog testbench or a VHDL testbench. You can generate models to speed RTL verification environment creation directly from MATLAB functions or Simulink models that support C code generation. This ensures that you accurately capture the high-level behavior of reference models and stimuli for RTL simulation. If the high-level design changes, you can re-generate the models.
These verification components use the SystemVerilog Direct Programming Interface (DPI), so you can use them in any simulator that supports SystemVerilog. You can optionally generate a Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) component from Simulink if your RTL verification environment uses UVM.
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- Generating DPI-C Models from MATLAB Using HDL Verifier (5:19)
- Generate SystemVerilog DPI for Analog Mixed-Signal Verification (3:50)
- Environment-in-the-Loop Verification of Automotive Radar IC Designs
- STMicroelectronics - Saving RTL Design and Verification Time through Reuse of Simulink Models
- What Is ASIC Testbench? (1:55)
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Production Code Generation
Legacy design processes often introduce bugs during the manual processes of writing a specification document and writing code based on that document. Once you have performed system-level verification with MATLAB and Simulink, you can generate HDL and C code for FPGA and ASIC designs directly from these verified implementation models.
The generated HDL is readable, traceable back to its source model, and is target-independent. You can control speed optimizations such as pipeline insertion, area optimizations like resource sharing, and various coding styles and structure options. You can also build retargetable IP cores to accelerate processor tasks in SoC designs. While synthesis tools from AMD® and Intel® can run automatically from the code generation menu, you can generate scripts to run any FPGA or ASIC synthesis tool.
Readable HDL code, including model comments, with line-level traceability between the code and model.
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- Driving the Adoption of Model-Based Design for Communications System Development at Hitachi
- Philips Healthcare Develops Smart Digital RF Power Subsystem for MRI Systems
- Ultra-Low Power Model-Based ASIC Design for Implantable Medical Products Using HDL Coder (27:16)
- MATLAB-to-SystemC Workflow for Cadence Stratus HLS (5:02)
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Checking a hardware subsystem for compliance with DO-254 modeling standards.
Functional Safety
If your project requires compliance with a functional safety standard, then workflows for FPGA, ASIC, and SoC development are included in kits for DO-254, ISO 26262, and IEC 61508. These workflows include running Model Advisor with built-in checks to ensure your model complies with the appropriate standard’s requirements.
The generated HDL and C code is readable and traceable back to the model and requirements to ease code review. You can use various techniques such as back-to-back testing with cosimulation or FPGA-in-the-loop to help satisfy verification requirements.
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Verifying Algorithms on FPGAs and ASICs
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