US Patent 8954312 Hardware emulation proxy for hardware software co-emulation

The invention provides for the interaction of an emulator emulating an electronic design having a communication bus communicating with a software application over the emulated communication bus. The interaction is facilitated in such a manner as to provide an appropriate latency for the emulated communication bus. According to various implementations of the invention, a protocol proxy is provided. The protocol proxy is designed to be emulated along with an electronic design and configured to communicate to software executing on a computer connected to the emulator. The protocol proxy includes a protocol module that communicates to the electronic design being emulated in the emulator environment. Furthermore, the protocol proxy includes a software control module that communicates to the software outside the emulator through proxy communication channels. Further still, the protocol proxy includes a data storage component.