You needn't decide between prototype or emulation

With today?s technologies, you can have both options, prototype and emulate.

by Zibi Zalewski, Aldec - Embedded Computing Design, May. 27, 2015 – 

As emulation methodologies become more popular and affordable for a variety of different-sized SoC/ASIC projects, the question arises as to why emulation should be used in areas where high-speed prototyping is still the main hardware verification technique performed. The first consideration is speed.

Those familiar with the subject know that FPGA prototyping can provide the fastest design verification. Of course, there?s a cost issue due to a longer design setup time and larger engineering effort. This is changing as setup tools are improving and becoming easier to use. However, getting to the highest speed still requires more time. Some companies even design their FPGA boards in-house per design spec to achieve the highest prototyping speed. This makes the process even longer, yet, combined with software partitioning tools, it certainly delivers the best speed results.

Another issue is the interface level for the verification process. To switch to emulation, you must move from bit-level to transaction-level interfacing. This involves developing a transaction-level testbench and transaction to bit-level bridges called transactors, requiring new engineering skills (and time to learn them).

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