Tasking and Synopsys work towards safer automotive ECUs

Tasking, a German-based provider of development tools, has leveraged its debugging tools to support the Synopsys VDK (Virtualizer Development Kit) and Silver virtual ECU (Electronic Control Unit) platforms. As a result, developers can use this suite of tools to increase efficiency, while improving vehicle safety and reliability. This step is aimed at reducing time-to-market and increasing the quality of software in vehicles.

The Synopsys Virtualizer and Silver software environments allow for simulation of ECUs on different hardware abstraction levels from Level 4 (Virtualizer, VDKs) to abstractions on Level 1-3 (Silver) according to the prostep virtual ECU categorization. Furthermore, the Synopsys tooling enables co-simulation with models of different tools (e.g., MATLAB / Simulink, Dymola, SimulationX, MapleSim, AMEsim, GT-Power, axisuite) and integrates into automotive workflows to frontload integration, validation, and debugging. The use of virtual ECUs creates an ideal environment for the development and validation of automotive software.

By integrating TASKING’s debugging tools with Synopsys Silver, users can seamlessly switch between virtual and physical ECUs. The same tools and automation scripts can be used without changing the user’s process. In this way, the tools enable developers to identify and fix potential errors and security vulnerabilities early on, which significantly improves vehicle safety and reliability.

“The integration of TASKING debuggers with Synopsys virtual prototyping solutions is an important step towards a safer future for the automotive industry. The integration of our solutions enables manufacturers to develop their products faster and more efficiently,” said Tasking CTO Christoph Herzog.