Real Time Simulation in Floating Point Precision Using FPGA Computing

Abstract

Real time simulations are indispensable for evaluation of new components, control system development, and system integration. There is a trade-off between model fidelity and the computational demands of the model; often lower fidelity models are chosen to speed development and to enable real time testing. FPGA technology offers an advantage over software simulation by exploiting bit and instruction level parallelism by default, but traditionally at the expense of coding effort and the need for experienced hardware engineers. The high cost of developing a model to execute on a FPGA is particularly prohibitive due to modifications occurring during system development. The work presents a process enabling an engineer to avoid hand-coded VHDL programming, yet take full advantage of the technology. The process described comes as a complete package: creating the model using pre-defined libraries, compilation and execution using specialized FPGA tools, simulation, co-simulation and interfacing with other technologies using in-house developed drivers.