ABSTRACT
Simulation has long been used to support design and analysis of complex engineering systems. Fast simulations allow designers to flexibly experiment with and analyze different design solutions without implementing the systems in hardware. Real-time simulations support designers to test the real-time features of a system that interacts with the physical world and/or other hardware components. The latter is especially useful for designing real-time embedded systems, such as mobile devices, manufacturing automation sensors/actuators, and the networked software-defined radio (SDR) system presented in this chapter. Design and implementation of these systems have been influenced by the increasing demand of new products and the recent advances in technologies. The complexity and multidisciplinary nature of these systems make analytical modeling and analysis infeasible. However, system engineers must assess a design before proceeding with implementation of an 182expensive solution. Although traditional modeling and simulation can help in this goal, its applicability has been limited because of the gap between simulation models and implementation in hardware.
