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 commerc ...

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 ha ...

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

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

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 investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...

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

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, Computer programming, programming, software documentation, documenting, software testing, testing, and Software bugs, bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applic ...

s to

simulate A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

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 time ...

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 semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

and Virtutech began working collaboratively on simulation for AMD's Hammer chips. In July 2005, IBM selected Virtutech Simics for development of its

POWER6 The POWER6 is a microprocessor developed by IBM that implemented the Power ISA v.2.03. When it became available in systems in 2007, it succeeded the POWER5+ as IBM's flagship Power microprocessor. It is claimed to be part of the eCLipz projec ...

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, embed ...

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 Power.org was an organization to develop and promote Power Architecture technology by establishing its open standards, guidelines, best practices, and certifications. Power.org was founded in 2004 by IBM and 15 other companies. Freescale (later ...

. As

embedded systems An embedded system is a 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 ''embedded'' as ...

become more complex, especially with the advent of

multiprocessor Multiprocessing 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. There ar ...

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, 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 software, ...

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

EE Times
- Virtutech system-level simulator features Hindsight technology
Virtual Strategy Magazine
- New CEO John Lambert on Virtutech Present and Future
Slashdot
- Hindsight: Reversible Computing

Notes

External links

VirtutechSimics
{{Intel 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 Software companies of the United States