It is important that you choose the correct emulator for your application. To help you do so, we have listed a few questions that you should ask yourself before you make your purchase.

» What target system am I using?

The target system (ie. the target DSP/processor) must be supported by the emulator you choose. Look at our emulator comparison page to see which emulators support your processor.

» What interfaces are available to me?

You must be able to connect your emulator to your computer. There is no point getting a PCI based emulator if you have no more PCI slots available in your PC. Below is a list of the interfaces available with Softronics emulators:

Look in our Products section for more details on each of these.

» What operating system is available to me?

Some emulators are not supported by all operating systems. For example, USB is not supported by Windows NT, hence the ACE cannot be used with this operating system. If you are not willing to change over to a new operating system you should make sure that the emulator you select can be used on your machine. Look at our emulator comparison page to see which emulators support your processor.

» What do I value more: speed or convenience?

There is always a trade-off between portability and performance. USB based emulators are very convenient because they can be used on lap-tops and hence taken anywhere, anytime - but this is at the cost of much slower download speeds. If you are likely to be performing a lot of time-intensive operations (such as large downloads) then it may be worthwhile sacrificing portability for increased performance by choosing one of our PCI based solutions.

» How many people will need to use the Emulator?

If many people are likely to need access to your emulator, then it may become inconvenient to all have to use the same machine. By choosing an ethernet based emulator such as the nICE, everyone has access to the same emulator via an already established network. This increases the  productivity within a company whilst reducing the hardware costs required for extra equipment.

» Will I be developing on more than one target at the same time?

If you will be working with multi-target  system, then the efficiency of the emulator may become important. This is because when multiple scan chains are "daisy-chained" into one long scan chain requests to any one target are slowed down proportionally. If this becomes an issue, it may be worthwhile to select a multi-target emulator like the xICE that has each target system on a separate scan chain - thereby increasing the throughput (speed). The xICE is also a good way to spread out costs over time and allow for growth because it can be initially purchased as a single unit (for a single target) and extra pods can be purchased incrementally as your system grows.