There are also some effects that may be visible only when a series of graphical images is displayed. For this reason, graphics designers play multiple graphics images on a display screen as close as possible to actual speed. If a writable optical disk is available, full-speed playback of the sequence is achievable. The role of emulation Hardware emulation has become increasingly popular in the last few years and has been used successfully on a number of complex graphics design projects. Emulation entails mapping the system under design into a reconfigurable hardware platform built from FPGA or similar programmable devices.
Emulators typically operate at a speed far less than the final design.
Mapping complex components or ASIC macros into the FPGA devices is difficult and presents the main challenge of emulation. Graphics emulation projects usually address these issues by emulating the design only up to the frame buffer. A special frame buffer built to drive display screens at standard rates is loaded at a much slower emulation speed. This allows the direct viewing of generated images without the need to convert a frame buffer model file to a display form. Any embedded processors and memories in the graphics subsystem are usually not modeled in FPGA form.