[Qemu-devel] Questions regarding using QEMU as a hardware exploration platform

[Pablo Salinas]

Hello there,
              I am starting my Master's Thesis related to the Hardware/Software co-simulation design.

Currently, we have a System-Level-Design-Language similar to SystemC that can be used for both: Simulating a system and generating the proper embedded software and RTL information (for future synthesis). Simulation is performed in different levels starting from the purely abstract Functional level, going down to the RTL/IIS level.

The embedded software generation is done by using the gnu gcc compiler collection. And the the IIS simulation has done so far by interfacing to the SWARM ISS.

Therefore, now we are looking into the idea of using QEMU as the ISS. I believe that this idea is very much similar to what some folks working with SystemC are doing nowadays. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information on how to interface with QEMU in order to use it as an ISS. I was wondering if any of you could point out to some piece of documentation that could explain better how this could be done.

Thanks in advance and best regards,
                                                  Pablo S.