Loopy — An open-source TCP/IP rapid prototyping and validation framework

Setting up host-to-board connections for hardware validation or hybrid simulation purposes is a time-consuming and error-prone process. In this paper we present a novel approach to automatically generate host-to-board connections, called the Loopy framework. The generated drivers enable blocking and non-blocking access to the hardware from high-level languages like C++ through an intuitive, object-based model of the hardware implementation. The framework itself is written in Java, and offers cross-platform support. It is open-source, well-documented, and can be enhanced with new supported languages, boards, tools, and features easily. Loopy combines several approaches presented in the past to an all-embracing helper toolkit for hardware designers, verification engineers, or people who want to use hardware accelerators in a software context. We have evaluated Loopy with real-life examples and present a case study with a complex MIMO system hardware-in-the-Ioop setup.