Chapter 3
Using Hardware Co-Simulation
Introduction
System Generator provides hardware co-simulation, making it possible to incorporate a design running in an FPGA directly into a Simulink simulation. "Hardware Co-
Simulation" compilation targets automatically create a bitstream and associate it to a block.
When the design is simulated in Simulink, results for the compiled portion are calculated in hardware. This allows the compiled portion to be tested in actual hardware and can speed up simulation dramatically.
M-Code Access to Hardware Co-Simulation
It is possible to programmatically control the hardware created through the System
Generator hardware co-simulation flow using MATLAB M-code (M-Hwcosim). The M-
Hwcosim interfaces allow for MATLAB objects that correspond to the hardware to be created in pure M-code, independent of the Simulink framework. These objects can then be used to read and write data into hardware. This capability is useful for providing a scripting interface to hardware co-simulation, allowing for the hardware to be used in a scripted test-bench or deployed as hardware acceleration in M-code.
For more information of this subject, refer to the topic M-Code Access to Hardware Co-
Simulation in the section Programmatic Access.
Installing Your Hardware Platform
The first step in performing hardware co-simulation is to install and setup your hardware platform. The following topics provide Specific installation and setup instructions for
Xilinx supported platforms:
Ethernet-Based Hardware Co-Simulation
Installing an ML402 Platform for Ethernet Hardware Co-Simulation
Installing an ML506 Platform for Ethernet Hardware Co-Simulation
Installing an ML605 Platform for Ethernet Hardware Co-Simulation
Installing a Spartan-3A DSP 1800A Starter Platform for Ethernet Hardware Co-Simulation
Installing a Spartan-3A DSP 3400A Development Platform for Ethernet Hardware Co-
Simulation
Note:
If installation instructions for your particular platform are not provided here, please refer to the installation instuctions that come with your Platform Kit.
System Generator for DSP User Guide
UG640 (v11.4) December 2, 2009 www.xilinx.com
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