October 27, 2008 -- More than one billion wireless devices are sold every year. This enormous volume, in combination with the hardware and software complexity of the devices, has given rise to an uncountable number of technical advances. Seemingly small changes of pennies per unit in manufacturing costs, or a slip in the delivery schedule, can add up to substantial dollar amounts when combined with the sheer volume of devices to be manufactured.

One technology gaining widespread acceptance within the wireless design community is the use of virtual prototypes throughout the design cycle. Wireless engineers are leveraging virtual prototypes of their system-on-chip designs to improve product quality and speed time to market. A virtual prototype can be an indispensable tool for performing early architectural analysis for throughput and power trade-offs. Firmware developers can use virtual prototypes to develop and debug their software in advance of real silicon. In addition, virtual prototypes can be used to optimize the throughput of designs that have been built already.

By Bill Neifert. (Neifert is Chief Technology Officer and a co-founder of Carbon Design Systems, Inc.)