Software Virtual Platform Boots Linux in Under Five Seconds on Standard PCs for Early Software Development and RISC-V Hardware Validation

Oxford, United Kingdom,  February 26, 2018  -  Imperas Software Ltd., the leader in high-performance software simulation and virtual platforms, announces availability of its RISC-V RV64GC Linux Extendable Platform Kit (EPK) specifically designed to run Linux at close-to-operational performance.

The latest in the Imperas line of RISC-V EPKs, the RV64GC Linux platform can boot Linux in under five seconds on a regular personal computer, allowing for applications to be executed at reasonable performance levels without the need for an actual RISC-V hardware device.  Click here to view a video demonstrating Linux booting on the EPK. 

"The RISC-V movement has tremendous potential but it is absolutely reliant on a robust ecosystem, including early software development solutions," noted Simon Davidmann, President and Chief Executive Officer, Imperas Software, Ltd. "Imperas has uniquely solved this problem, providing RISC-V developers with commercial-grade processor simulation to accelerate software verification as well as hardware validation."

The Imperas EPKs include source and binary models of specific RISC-V processor families from various companies, the high-performance OVPSim simulator, models of key platform components and operating system software. Models are available for the entire family of RISC-V processors as well as those from leading processor vendors. The processor model instruction set can be easily extended externally to the basic model code, allowing for fast updates and easy maintenance.

"The Imperas release of the first commercial simulator that can boot Linux on a RISC-V ISS model represents a significant milestone in the evolution of processors based on the RISC-V RV64GC ISA," said Rick O'Connor, RISC-V Foundation executive director. "A key element of the RISC-V ecosystem is a robust, commercial virtual software development environment and Imperas has delivered on this promise."

Imperas virtual platform products provide for a broad range of software verification and profiling capabilities. Model code coverage and instruction coverage enable an effective measure of software verification quality to be established. A broad range of profiling tools, including timing performance and power consumption, allow for effective quality metrics to be established, prior to hardware availability. An advanced debug solution is also included with advanced features designed specifically for complex multi-core software.

The Imperas RISC-V RV64GC Linux EPK will be demonstrated on the Imperas booth number 3A-419 at the Embedded World Conference held in Nuremberg, Germany on February 27th, 2018.