Technology - Instruction Set Simulator (ISS)

The ISS, provided in the main OVP download package is a standalone executable that performs the following tasks:

  • Locate and loads CPU models from the library
  • Load application code to run on the built-in platforms
  • Modify the behavior of the platforms and models by changing run-time switches
  • Load the OVPsim or CpuManager objects and simulate the platform
  • Load a semihost library to allow application code to interact with host computer
  • Invoke a GDB or MPD debugger to enable source code debug
  • Invoke iGui or eGui to control the GDB/MPD debuggers using a GUI
  • Report performance statistics when simulation is complete

The ISS can be used to simulate application code in bare metal environments by just loading up a cross compiled elf file and selecting a CPU variant. There are configuration options to locate memory and select other parameters.

As with all Imperas tools there is a command line argument --help that lists all the options available.

graphic: ISS overview...