Simulate board bring-up before the prototype

Adam Szefer · Co-founder & CTOUpdated July 23, 2026

Prev. Bloomberg · Gyfted. Systems and simulation infrastructure — the engine that runs your firmware against the circuit.

Bring-up is where schedules slip: quiet buses, brownouts, “works if I reset twice.” Simulation will not replace a scope on a real rail — it clears the silly failures before you join the lab queue.

Shift-left the bring-up checklist

Power sequencing relative to firmware, default pin states, I²C/SPI enumeration, interrupt wiring — exercisable as soon as netlist and image exist.

Keep a regression suite

Once a bring-up path works in simulation, gate firmware and schematic changes on it. Prototype #2 should be about physics, not rediscovering pinmux.

Hand-off to the bench

Same binaries, same tests where possible. Instruments take over for rails and sensors; the twin already proved the digital contracts.

HardLabs

What HardLabs does — join the design-partner pilot

We build a digital twin from your netlist, schematic, and BOM, run your real firmware against it, and fail CI when pinmux, buses, or timing contracts break — weeks before bring-up on hardware.

  • A digital twin of your hardware, built from your netlist, schematic, and BOM.
  • A virtual lab: scopes, logic analyzers, and firmware debuggers in simulation.
  • Auto-flagging of power-sequence errors, output contention, and race conditions.

Pilot details · App

Related

  • Simulate the PCB before fab

    Simulate your PCB before manufacturing: run real firmware against netlist-derived buses and catch pinmux, address, and timing bugs while the schematic can still change.

  • Avoid integration respins

    Avoid PCB respins caused by pinmux, bus, and timing mistakes — catch HW/FW integration bugs in simulation weeks before the first articles.

  • HIL alternative before hardware

    Need HIL-class coverage before PCBs exist? HardLabs runs unmodified firmware against a netlist-derived board model — a software HIL path for schematic freeze.

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