Scalable Software Testing in Fast Virtual Platforms: Leveraging SystemC, QEMU and Containerization

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Jünger, Lukas, Weinstock, Jan Henrik, Kraus, Tim
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Jünger, Lukas
Weinstock, Jan Henrik
Kraus, Tim
author_facet Jünger, Lukas
Weinstock, Jan Henrik
Kraus, Tim
contents The ever-increasing complexity of HW/SW systems presents a persistent challenge, particularly in safety-critical domains like automotive, where extensive testing is imperative. However, the availability of hardware often lags behind, hindering early-stage software development. To address this, Virtual Platforms (VPs) based on the SystemC TLM-2.0 standard have emerged as a pivotal solution, enabling pre-silicon execution and testing of unmodified target software. In this study, we propose an approach leveraging containerization to encapsulate VPs in order to reduce environment dependencies and enable cloud deployment for fast, parallelized test execution, as well as open-source VP technologies such as QEMU and VCML to obviate the need for seat licenses. To demonstrate the efficacy of our approach, we present an Artificial Intelligence (AI) accelerator VP case study. Through our research, we offer a robust solution to address the challenges posed by the complexity of HW/SW systems, with practical implications for accelerating HW/SW co-development.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_10624
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scalable Software Testing in Fast Virtual Platforms: Leveraging SystemC, QEMU and Containerization
Jünger, Lukas
Weinstock, Jan Henrik
Kraus, Tim
Software Engineering
Hardware Architecture
The ever-increasing complexity of HW/SW systems presents a persistent challenge, particularly in safety-critical domains like automotive, where extensive testing is imperative. However, the availability of hardware often lags behind, hindering early-stage software development. To address this, Virtual Platforms (VPs) based on the SystemC TLM-2.0 standard have emerged as a pivotal solution, enabling pre-silicon execution and testing of unmodified target software. In this study, we propose an approach leveraging containerization to encapsulate VPs in order to reduce environment dependencies and enable cloud deployment for fast, parallelized test execution, as well as open-source VP technologies such as QEMU and VCML to obviate the need for seat licenses. To demonstrate the efficacy of our approach, we present an Artificial Intelligence (AI) accelerator VP case study. Through our research, we offer a robust solution to address the challenges posed by the complexity of HW/SW systems, with practical implications for accelerating HW/SW co-development.
title Scalable Software Testing in Fast Virtual Platforms: Leveraging SystemC, QEMU and Containerization
topic Software Engineering
Hardware Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.10624