Patent ID: 7366651

Claim:
A processor-based method of interfacing between a high-level modeling system and a hardware description language (HDL) co-simulation engine, comprising: querying a plurality of HDL co-simulation engines for capabilities of the engines; wherein the querying includes submitting respective queries from a processor-executable control element to the plurality of co-simulation engines, and each co-simulation engine includes a query interface that is responsive to queries from the control element; receiving from the plurality of co-simulation engines by the control element, information that specifies respective capabilities of the co-simulation engines; displaying a list that identifies each co-simulation engine having one or more of the capabilities; selecting an HDL co-simulation engine based on the capabilities; wherein the selecting of an HDL co-simulation engine is in response to user input; creating an instance of the selected co-simulation engine configuring the selected co-simulation engine; and providing input logic vectors to the selected HDL co-simulation engine, executing the selected HDL co-simulation engine, and retrieving output logic vectors from the selected HDL co-simulation engine.