Co-simulation of embedded electronic systems

Embedded electronic systems are composed of a mixture of software and hardware, both digital and analog, which may interact with mechanical parts and physical processes. Different languages and computation models are usually employed for each of these design domains, so that co-simulation facilities are needed to validate designs. This paper describes co-simulation of embedded electronic systems in the context of the SES design environment. Systems may be initially described at a high abstraction level by means of C++, using an object-oriented approach. Hardware components may be described in VHDL, and differential equations may be used for modeling mechanical parts and physical processes. Any combination of parts described in C++, VHDL and by differential equations may be co-simulated.