Synopsys has unveiled a groundbreaking enhancement to its virtual prototyping suite that promises to transform how developers build software-defined products. The newly announced Virtualizer Native Execution on Arm hardware leverages the commonality between server and edge device architectures to accelerate development cycles and time to market.
Bridging the Gap Between Cloud and Edge
As software increasingly defines product functionality in automotive systems, high-performance computing (HPC), and internet of things (IoT) devices, development teams face mounting pressure to deliver complex solutions faster. Announced on March 10, Synopsys’ innovation addresses this challenge by enabling software workloads to execute natively on Arm servers, eliminating translation overhead and significantly boosting simulation speed.
“By executing software binaries directly on Arm application processor cores, we’re seeing substantial performance improvements,” explains a Synopsys spokesperson. “This means faster validation cycles, earlier debugging and ultimately quicker time to market for our customers.”
CI/CD Integration for Modern Development
This solution’s seamless integration into continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) methodologies sets this solution apart. The complete Virtualizer suite now supports Arm server hardware in cloud environments and on-premises installations, allowing teams to incorporate virtual prototyping into automated testing pipelines.
This capability is especially valuable for automotive developers navigating an increasingly software-defined landscape. As Suraj Gajendra, VP of Automotive Product and Software Solutions at Arm, notes: “With the introduction of Synopsys Virtualizer Native Execution on Arm, our mutual customers will be able to leverage the benefits of Arm in the cloud and at the edge, beginning software development much earlier, and ultimately saving time and money.”
According to Mitch Ashley, VP and Practice Lead, DevOps and Application Development, The Futurum Group, “Virtualizer Native Execution on Arm potentially reduces product cycletimes for data center, edge and IoT applications. Moving binaries directly to Arm for testing, validation and debugging brings the velocity acceleration development teams want to achieve.”
Comprehensive Ecosystem Support
The solution builds upon Synopsys’ two decades of leadership in virtual prototyping. It supports seamless scaling of existing virtual prototypes, fully supports Synopsys’ leading interface IP, and offers access to an extensive standards-based model ecosystem.
DevOps teams will appreciate the flexibility of deploying to various Arm-based infrastructure providers, including Ampere, AWS, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia. This versatility allows organizations to optimize compute resources according to their specific workflow requirements, balancing performance, power consumption and cost.
Hybrid Approaches for Complex Validation
Perhaps most impressive is the solution’s integration with Synopsys’ hardware-assisted verification (HAV) products, including the ZeBu Server 5, ZeBu EP1, ZeBu EP2 and the recently announced ZeBu-200 systems. This hybrid prototyping approach enables developers to tackle software-intensive validation challenges, including power estimation and architecture performance analysis.
As products become increasingly software-defined, this capability allows teams to establish comprehensive electronic digital twins for early system validation, further compressing development timelines.
Impact on Development Workflows
For DevOps practitioners supporting embedded and edge computing projects, Virtualizer Native Execution on Arm represents a significant step forward. The technology enables:
- Earlier software development start times with faster execution speeds
- Reduced debug cycles through standard tool chains and specialized analysis tools
- Comprehensive application-level performance testing
- Streamlined deployment in cloud or on-premise environments
With software complexity growing across industries, tools that bridge hardware-software co-design become increasingly crucial to maintaining competitive development velocity. Synopsys’ latest innovation directly addresses this need by bringing cloud-scale resources to the virtual prototyping process.
The solution is available immediately, with additional information and resources accessible here.
