dSPACE, VaST Collaborate on Simulating Automotive Software on Virtual Hardware Platforms

Early Validation of Conventional and AUTOSAR-compliant Automotive Software
Paderborn, September 23, 2008: dSPACE GmbH and VaST today announced a collaboration in simulating automotive and AUTOSAR-compliant software on virtual hardware platforms. The goal of the collaboration is to closely couple dSPACE’s automotive software development tools TargetLink and SystemDesk with VaST’s virtualization tools COMET® and METeor®. Users of these tools can replace hardware prototypes with virtual system prototypes to simulate and validate automotive software applications on early in the design flow. 

The combined development tools provide accurate timing and deeper performance visibility in the hardware and software operations for single or networked ECU systems. Developers can accurately profile and quantify system behavior for time-critical applications. Details such as execution times, scheduling, and interrupt latencies can be analyzed and quickly refined early in the design flow, which results in a much better hardware and software design.

TargetLink and SystemDesk from dSPACE 

The production code generator TargetLink generates highly efficient C code directly from Simulink®/Stateflow® models and is used in numerous production projects all over the world. Several modes for simulation support the development process, e.g. a processor-in-the-loop simulation where the application code is executed on an embedded processor. 

SystemDesk is a tool that supports users in developing software for single electronic control units (ECUs) and networks of ECUs by assisting them when they model, plan and integrate complex distributed software systems. The software system can be validated during different development steps by executing the system model in an offline simulation on the host PC. 

Both tools support the development of software according to the AUTOSAR standard.

COMET and METeor from VaST 

COMET is a system engineering tool enabling the creation of virtual system prototypes (VSP). With COMET, designers create and simulate high-speed, cycle-accurate models of ECUs and networked ECUs, then analyze and optimize performance while running real software applications. METeor is an interactive software development environment for VSPs created with COMET. With METeor, software developers simulate, debug, and develop better-quality software early in the design flow.

Company Profile – VaST

VaST drives electronics virtualization. The company is fundamentally changing the electronics industry by breaking the dependency on hardware prototypes. With VaST, electronics companies develop virtual system prototypes—timing-accurate, high-speed simulation models of their electronic systems—for use in design and supply chain enablement. Using virtualization, customers develop software before hardware and enable early software development by ecosystem partners which cuts time-to-market by 8 months or more. 

VaST’s customers include worldwide leaders in automotive, consumer, and wireless markets. VaST is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with sales and support offices worldwide.

Company Profile – dSPACE

dSPACE is the world’s leading producer of engineering tools for developing electronic control units (ECUs) and mechatronic controls. The company was one of those that opened up this market segment some 20 years ago, and has remained one of its driving forces to this day. Using dSPACE systems, manufacturers of controllers and electronic control units (ECUs) dramatically reduce their development times and costs, and noticeably increase their productivity. The reason is our optimum mix of standard solutions for rapid control prototyping, automatic production code generation, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, and ECU calibration. We also provide comprehensive services – from on-site training through to custom engineering.

dSPACE’s customers value it as a high-tech market leader that invests in continuous further development. They also appreciate our close partnership with them, shown by years of cooperation with numerous customers, pursuing our common objective of maintaining, indeed extending, their technological lead.