Virtutech was a company founded in 1998 as a spin-off from the

Swedish Institute of Computer Science RISE SICS (previously Swedish Institute of Computer Science) is a leading research institute for applied information and communication technology in Sweden, founded in 1985. It explores the digitalization of products, services and businesses. In ...

(SICS), to commercially develop its

Simics Simics is a full-system simulator or virtual platform used to run unchanged production binaries of the target hardware. Simics was originally developed by the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS), and then spun off to Virtutech for comm ...

computer architecture simulator A computer architecture simulator is a program that simulates the execution of computer architecture. Computer architecture simulators are used for the following purposes: * Lowering cost by evaluating hardware designs without building physical ...

software. In 2004, Virtutech accepted investment and moved its headquarters to San Jose, California. In 2010, Virtutech was wholly acquired by

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

and became part of Intel's Wind River subsidiary. In 2018, Wind River was sold to

TPG Capital TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The firm in ...

, which continues to sell Simics under the Wind River brand. The Intel Stockholm site remains the center of Simics core R&D. Simics software is used by teams of

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

s to simulate computer systems. This facilitates the development, testing, and debugging of

embedded software Embedded software is computer software, written to control machines or devices that are not typically thought of as computers, commonly known as embedded systems. It is typically specialized for the particular hardware that it runs on and has tim ...

that runs devices such as high-end servers, network hardware, aerospace/military vehicles, and automobiles. Simics allows embedded software developers to create virtual models of hardware using an ordinary desktop computer, run specified sets of tests, and walk the programs through each step of execution, both forwards and backwards.

History

In 2001,

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...

and Virtutech began working collaboratively on simulation for AMD's Hammer chips. In July 2005,

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

selected Virtutech Simics for development of its

POWER6 The POWER6 is a microprocessor developed by IBM that implemented the Power ISA#Power ISA v.2.05, Power ISA v.2.05. When it became available in systems in 2007, it succeeded the POWER5#POWER5+, POWER5+ as IBM's flagship Power microprocessor. It i ...

platform. In 2007, Virtutech and

Freescale Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. was an American semiconductor manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola in 2004. Freescale focused their integrated circuit products on the automotive, embedde ...

announced a collaboration program around multicore processors. Virtutech thus appears to have a customer base that is partly in the embedded software world, and partly in the general computing and server world. Virtutech was a member of Power.org. As

embedded systems An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is em ...

become more complex, especially with the advent of

multiprocessor Multiprocessing (MP) is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. The ...

s, it has become increasingly difficult to develop and debug

without the use of specialized tools. Virtutech's idea is to provide tools that allow developers to develop software faster than they would using hardware and traditional development methods. In particular, by modeling a complex hardware system using software running on an ordinary workstation computer, Virtutech claims to reduce the challenge of embedded software development. On February 5, 2010,

announced that it had acquired Virtutech and that Simics will now be maintained by Intel's subsidiary

Wind River Systems Wind River Systems, Inc., also known as Wind River (trademarked as Wndrvr), is an Alameda, California–based company, subsidiary of Aptiv PLC. The company develops embedded system and cloud software consisting of real-time operating systems sof ...

. The price of the acquisition was $45M.Eda Graffiti
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References

EE Times
- Virtutech system-level simulator features Hindsight technology

Notes

External links

VirtutechSimics
{{Intel 1998 establishments in Sweden Software companies based in California Companies based in San Jose, California Companies established in 1998 Electronic design automation companies Emulation software Simulation software Virtual machines Intel acquisitions Defunct software companies of Sweden Defunct software companies of the United States