VISUALSIM TRAINING

Training: Planning, Modeling, Simulation, Advanced Features
Planning
Goals &Requirements

Tasks orOperations

Workloads orTraffic

Hardware or
Platform

Collaboration& Sharing

DataManagement

SupportLook & feelFlow- System,
Beh-Arch,
Data flow

Performance
Power
Functionality

Hierarchical/
Class/ DI
BlocksTraffic/
Results

Hardware/
Software/
Network

Abstraction

Algorithms

Task Graph

Checking

Graphical/
Batch/ MultiCore

Debugging/
Verification

Requirements

PostSimulation

Types of Plots

Advanced
StudiesAccuracy

CompareGeneration

Encryption

Modeling
Parameters/
Variables/ DS/
FieldsSimulation and Analysis
Types ofStudiesParameter
RangesAdvanced Features
FailureIntegration

Agenda- Part 1: Planning Goals and Requirements
 Tasks and Operations
 Workload or Traffic Hardware or Platform Collaboration and Sharing
 Data Management
 Support
 Look and Feel

Planning Stage of the System Modeling
It involves the solutions/patform architect along with the product team deciding on the high level aspects of thedesign.
It will involve the following questions and subsequently narrowing down on the answers:
1.Performance and Power Objectives: Define specific performance and power targets, balancing them for overall
objectives, such as X GHz processing speed within Y watts power budget.
2.Application Mapping and Task Graph: Plan how applications or tasks will map onto the hardware platform,
outlining the system's task graph.
3.Scalability and Reliability: Ensure the hardware system accommodates future scalability needs while
maintaining high availability and reliability. This may involve redundant components or failover mechanisms toprevent downtime.
4.Security and Interoperability: Integrate security measures into the hardware design and ensure interoperability
with other systems. For example, include hardware-based encryption modules and support industry-standard
communication protocols like PCIe/UCIe.
5.Cost-Effectiveness and User Experience: Consider cost implications in hardware design decisions, such as
selecting IPs/hardware platform. Employ strategies to enhance user experience within budget constraints, likechoosing cost-effective components without sacrificing performance or usability.

Goals in system design• High-level objectives guiding system design, quantifiable targets for functionality, performance, andother key aspects, used to drive design decisions.
• They can be later used to narrow down on the Requirements/Constraints of the system• The box below gives an example of system design goals for a radar system
Performance:
High-Level Goal: Achieve a minimum target detection rate of 95% within a range of 200 kilometers.
Quantifiable Metric: Target Detection Rate
Power:
High-Level Goal: Maintain power consumption below 500 watts during normal operation.
Quantifiable Metric: Power Consumption
Functionality/Behavioral:
High-Level Goal: Ensure the radar system can differentiate between aircraft, ships, and weather phenomena with at least 99% accuracy.
Quantifiable Metric: Classification Accuracy
Reliability/Security:High-Level Goal: Maintain system availability of at least 99.9% over a 30-day period, allowing for scheduled maintenance downtime.
Quantifiable Metric: System Availability

How to map goals to requirements?
Step 1 : Define Goals
Eg: Achieving a higher target detection rate
Step 2 : Model the system to observe
certain performance metrics like latency,
buffer usage, throughput.
Step 3 : Define Requirements/DesignConstraints
Eg : A higher Latency will limit the target
detection rate

Figure : System Model with hardware + algorithms. Flow Latencies
are being observed

Step 4 : optimizing the system
Eg : Optimize the radar system's signal
processing algorithms, hardware
capabilities, and environmental conditions
to minimize latency and improve overallperformance.

VisualSim Modeling Methodology – From Goals to verifying
Requirements••

Project Goals

Capture the Workflow(Task Graph)

Task Graph
Trigger Rate••

Build a radarsystem that canhandle 30 targets
per minute

Periodic
Event
Based

Different HW Arch
Components fromdifferent vendor

List of Stats

HW Arch

MappingStatsGen.

Debugging
FailRequirements

••
•••••

Built using delays

Mapping application todifferent hardware
resources

App latency
CPUUtilization
Bus/Memory
accesslatency
Bus/Memory
throughput
Powerconsumption
Bufferoccupancy•

ST Flow latency < 3msec
MT Flow Latency < 2msec

PassTasks Or Operations•Task: A specific unit of work that needs to be accomplished within a system. Tasks are typically smaller andmore granular than workloads. They represent individual operations or actions that contribute to thecompletion of a larger goal.

How to Map Tasks to the System Hardware?
1. Task Analysis:• Understand the requirements and characteristics of each task in terms of CPU, memory, I/O, and otherresources.
• Analyze dependencies and relationships between tasks to identify any constraints or priorities.
2. Resource Allocation:• Assign system resources such as CPU cores, memory, and I/O devices to tasks based on theirrequirements and priorities.
3. Choose the right scheduling algorithm:• Optimize resource allocation to maximize system efficiency and performance while meeting thedemands of individual tasks.
• Context Switching delays : Involves saving the current execution context of the running process,loading the context of the next process to be executed, and transferring control to it.

Workload Workload is a combination of tasks
 There are three different ways to define a workload in Visualsim
Behavioral Flow :• Define a sequence in which the hardware
resources of the system will be triggered.
• Breakdown the flow into individual stages
with predefined input and output

Figure : Behavioral flow example

Generate an instruction mix:
• Used to simulate the workload when the actual application software is still under development• It can also be used to evaluate the impact of certain type of instructions on the overall performance• Examples : What will be the impact on performance when there are higher branch mispredictions?
 higher number of loops vs a sequential code
Use real application traces:• Used when the application is available• Standard benchmarks like dhrystone can also be executed by fetching their traces using open source tools likeGEM5

Hardware or Platform Modeling• Extend an SOC based system model to a complete platform model• Components: Example of an automotive platform– Software applications: Extend the ECU/Microcontroller Model to include ADAS,infotainment systems– Sensors and Actuators : Accelerometer, Gyroscope, proximity sensor etc– Control systems : Speed control, Power systems, Mechanical systems etc– Interfaces : A high speed Ethernet interface– BUS/Communication Protocols : CAN BUS and nodes for communication between
different control systems– Power Generation : Include Battery, Temperature/Thermal management

A Complete automotive platform model in VisualSim
5. Communication
between differentcontrol systems

1. ECU orMicrocontroller

4. Mechanicalparts

2. Sensors
and Actuators

3. EthernetInterface

Collaboration and Sharing

Subsystems and their integration - Example
Develop or Acquire
IP

Software Development– Firmware, OS, drivers

SOC Platform
Integration

Workload analysisand Optimization
Full system Integration

Board level
Integration

Functional testingand Validation
Collaboration with
manufacturers anddesigners

Certification andbenchmarking wrt
industry standards

Maintenance andUpdates

Each of these tasks can be performed by individual teams using VisualSim and the Integration team canalso use the outputs from these teams

Generating Documentation - Interactive, and all plotsloadedData Management

GitHubor any version control tools

User NUser 1

User 2

Download Model
and Class files
Ex: D:/Project/VS/Project1

Download Model
and Class files
Ex: D:/VisualSim/Project1

Download Model
and Class files
Ex: C:/Plan/VS/Project1

Set CLASSPATH (in Windows – system
environment and Linux - .cshrc) toinclude the basepath
Basepath = D:/Project/VS/

Set CLASSPATH (in Windows – system
environment and Linux - .cshrc) toinclude the basepath
Basepath = D:/VisualSim/

Set CLASSPATH (in Windows – system
environment and Linux - .cshrc) toinclude the basepath
Basepath = C:/Plan/VS/

From the Basepath, it will be a standard path for all users

Adding Environmental variable in Windows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Right-click on the Start Button
Select “System” from the context menu.
Click “Advanced system settings”
Go to the “Advanced” tabClick “Environment Variables…”
Click “New”
Enter the path for the variable that is to beused.
8. For example,
9. Variable : CLASSPATH
10. Value: C:\VisualSim\VisualSim2410_64\VS_AR
In Linux :1. Open the .bashrc file and add the exportcommand
2. For example, Export CLASSPATH=C:/VisualSim/VisualSim2410_64/VS_AR

Support
online_support@mirabilisdesign.com

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Look and Feel of the Hardware and Behaviour in VisualSim
1. Menu-Bar

2. Toolbar

6. Variables

4. Annotations
7. Setup

3. Libraries

5. Parameters

13. Simulator
10. Architecture

12. Mapping
11. Use cases Behavior
8. Traffic
9. Report

VISUALSIM TRAINING