Mar 6
2026
Antmicro's open source Renode simulation framework can be interacted with in many ways: typically, a console-like window, an inline console for headless and remote connections, automated tests via Robot and other systems, as well as a range of various API layers. While a CLI-oriented flow is great for task automation and efficiency, Renode is able to gather insights from the simulation that are better presented in a graphical way. These could potentially include live graphs of input and output values, e.g. sensors, PWM or LEDs, CPU or memory usage inspection, and live execution traces. Read more
Mar 3
2026
A while back, we described our work on implementing and testing Bluetooth communication for an NXP MCU, using Zephyr RTOS and our Renode simulation framework. That setup included an Arm Cortex-M33-based NXP MIMXRT595 MCU designed for use in constrained wireless devices. Read more
Dec 19
2025
Renode allows you to emulate multi-core platforms, executing code on each core in isolation from one another, in parallel. However, in Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) architectures, the CPUs can communicate using various mechanisms, e.g. atomic instructions. Renode implements these mechanisms, but the extra synchronization between cores comes at an additional cost in processing time. Read more
Dec 4
2025
When debugging software, if you step over the code past your region of interest, usually you need to restart the whole process, which takes time. However, by recording the execution of a program and then "rewinding" and "replaying" it, you can go back to the point just before the bug you're analyzing occurred, examine the code, and identify the cause of the bug. This approach, called reverse execution, makes debugging easier and more accurate, as you can focus on a specific piece of code and go backwards and forwards as many times as necessary. Read more
Nov 20
2025
In previous years, we described how Renode support for the Armv8-A CPU architecture profile was enhanced for end-to-end Linux support, and how virtualization can be added for Armv8-R as exemplified by the Cortex-R52 CPU. Now, Antmicro has modeled a System Memory Management Unit (SMMU), which translates virtual addresses into physical ones for platforms running on Armv8-A and Armv8-R CPUs. As a result, we have enabled the use of Renode to test the drivers of the SMMU, and of I/O devices that use external Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU) translation. By extension, the SMMU translation process itself is also tested for these CPUs and devices. Read more