Simulate, Build, Debug and Analyze: Embedded Software Development on a Virtual Prototype with GPU

A custom Virtual Prototype runs a bare-metal OpenGL application and generates non-intrusive trace data. Software-only and GPU assisted implementations of the OpenGL application are run on the simulator. The trace data from the two implementations is then analyzed to compare performance.

More specifically:

The custom Virtual Prototype is built using Vista's model library and implements an ARM Cortex-A9, a GPU, and a custom control hardware element.

The bare-metal application (based on Fabrice Bellard's excellent TinyGL library implementation and gears example) is compiled and loaded onto the Virtual Prototype using Sourcery CodeBench Virtual Edition.

Trace data from the two OpenGL application implementations is imported into Sourcery Analyzer. Sourcery Analzer generates a frames-per-second visualization of the OpenGL application's performance using a custom Analysis Agent written specifically for this application.