HLA to Simulate Computer Systems at the Hardware Platform Level

The use of embedded computer systems to solve application problems requires an understanding of both the hardware platform involved and the software that customizes the hardware for the particular application. Modeling and simulation is used increasingly in developing the hardware and software of such systems. We have developed a generic framework to simulate the computer systems at the hardware platform level that can be used by the designers at different stages of the system development. For modeling platform components, the DEVS (Discrete event system specification) formalism is used. The simulation framework for these models is defined, following the specifications of the HLA (High level architecture) standard. We then describe the proposed framework of the simulator and how it interacts with general models of basic hardware platform components. We finally discuss a case study where this proposed simulation methodology is implemented on a specific hardware platform along with the results of the case study.