A functional Test Framework to observe MPSoC Power Management Techniques in Virtual Platforms

Today's Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are witnessing a growingcomplexity in terms of the number of components and computationalpower in order to meet the requirements of nowadays applications.For this reason and due to their energy efficiency, Multiprocessor system-on-chips (MPSoC) are becomingubiquitous. Yet, since these systems are often used inbattery-driven and/or small housing use cases, the correctconfiguration of their power management techniques isan important factor in system design and can be relatedto possible safety aspects of the system.This calls for an adequate test framework, which is ableto observe the power management functionalities of CPS,even before the actual hardware platform is available.The use of virtual platforms for functional validation,that allows executing the CPS's real target platform compatibleapplication binary code on a generic host computer, is currentlybeing adopted by the industry.This work focuses on enhancing industrial OVP virtual platforms bya functional test framework of the power management techniques.We will demonstrate and evaluate how this framework maintains to observe the powermanagement techniques of the system under test. Theevaluation uses a Xilinx ZC702 board based on a Xilinx Zynq-7000MPSoC and its correspondent virtual platform in OVP.Results show that the functional test framework is ableto analyze the different modes of operation regarding thepower management techniques of the Xilinx Zynq processingsystem.