Daniel R Isaacs

US Patent:

20040153301, Aug 5, 2004

Filed:

Feb 3, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/356917

Inventors:

Daniel Isaacs - Campbell CA, US
Curtis Settles - Fort Collins CO, US
Rafael Kedem - Sunnyvale CA, US

International Classification:

G06F017/50

US Classification:

703/014000

Abstract:

The present invention is directed to a development methodology for integrated circuits. Central to this methodology is elimination of the dependence of software development on actual silicon for system integration and functional validation. In a first aspect of the present invention, a method for designing an integrated circuit and software for implementation by the integrated circuit includes receiving a specification for an integrated circuit design, the integrated circuit design specification including desired integrated circuit functionality. The integrated circuit design specification is modeled by defining a behavioral model of the integrated circuit design specification modeling the desired integrated circuit functionality. The integrated circuit design specification is simulated by utilizing the behavioral model as a virtual platform. The software developed on the virtual platform may be run on a hardware based prototyping platform. This hardware prototyping system may utilize actual RTL synthesized and programmed into FPGAs enabling functional validation and interoperability system level testing of the actual integrated circuit prior to manufacture of silicon.