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Imperas
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Imperas (pronounced 'imp-ear-as') was founded in 2005 to address then future problems in embedded software for Multiple Processor Systems on Chips (MPSoCs). Simon Davidmann, a veteran of the Electronic Design Automation EDA industry, was the founder of Imperas, and remains with Imperas as CEO. Originally incorporated in Silicon Valley, the company in 2007 bought out the venture capital investors. The company is currently based in Thame, Oxfordshire, England. Imperas products, based on the M* technology, focus on enabling software developers to find and fix bugs with more efficiency, and to provide metrics to better manage the software development process. In early 2008 Imperas made the decision to release some of its technology into the public domain, and created Open Virtual Platforms (OVP) . OVP includes APIs for creating models of processors, peripherals and platforms, a library of models (open source) and a free simulator, OVPsim. OVP is supported not just by Imperas but also by an ecosystem of other companies and individuals: users, tool developers, IP developers, service providers and academics . Among these companies are processor IP developers Tensilica and MIPS Technologies, with MIPS including Imperas in its MIPS-verified(tm) program. OVP now exists as a non-proprietary, free technology enabling embedded software developers to simulate and debug software on MPSoCs. Independent consultant Brian Bailey has also commented on how "OVP makes system-level prototyping a reality". Imperas is a founding member of the Multicore Association. Imperas Observation About the Embedded Software Industry In the 1990s, logic synthesis and simulation technology enabled exponential growth in integrated circuit (IC) capabilities, bringing us to this era of systems on chips. While IC capacity increased by about 100x during this decade, design complexity increased by much more than that, with the result that the verification of the functionality of these ICs became the biggest development problem. This problem was brought under control through a combination of technology and methodology, by startups such as Verisity Specman, Co-Design Automation, 0-in and Novas. In the current decade (2000s), the exponential increase in software complexity (the software code base for embedded products is doubling annually, and software concurrency is doubling every 18 months) demanded by product features and enabled by SoCs, has outpaced software verification technology. Imperas, whose team members have experience in SoC hardware functional verification, is bringing proven verification techniques to bear on the embedded software verification problem. Imperas is using virtualization and simulation technologies to enable functional verification of software to begin before either the SoC or any prototype is available, speeding up the development cycle. References and Footnotes 
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