Call for papers

The International Workshop on Rapid System Prototyping (RSP) emphasizes design experience sharing and collaborative approach between hardware and software research communities from industry and academy. It considers prototyping as an iterative design approach for embedded hardware and software systems. The RSP series of workshop aim at bridging the gaps in embedded system design between applications, architectures, tools, and technologies to achieve rapid system prototyping of emerging software and hardware systems.

For its 37th venue, the Rapid System Prototyping workshop seeks original contributions related to this target, encompassing a wide scope ranging from formal methods for  the  verification  of  software  and  hardware  systems  to  case  studies  of  emerging embedded systems and technologies. The workshop proposes an inspiring international forum for discussing the latest related innovations and research activities. The workshop program will include keynote speeches and technical papers on timely topics.

In addition, RSP 2026 will feature a Special Session on RISC-V: Open Architectures for Rapid Prototyping.

The RSP workshop continues as part of the Embedded Systems Week (ESWEEK), which will be held from October 4 to October 9, 2026 in Barcelona, Spain. See http://www.esweek.org for more details.

Suggested topics cover both software and hardware domains. They include, but are not limited to:

  • Rapid prototyping and emulation methods and tools
  • Specification models and methodologies for hardware/software systems
  • Emerging technologies, devices, boards, and applications
  • Prototyping experiences related to emerging technologies (memories, 3D integration, next generation wireless, Internet of Things)
  • Prototyping of embedded systems for real-time, low power, and flexibility
  • Hardware and software platforms for IoT systems
  • Middleware for embedded systems
  • Model-driven engineering and prototyping
  • Formal methods and verification/validation of embedded systems
  • Reliability and failure analysis for embedded systems
  • Embedded system virtualization
  • Virtual prototyping and platforms for embedded systems
  • Prototyping methods and tools for reconfigurable computing
  • Rapid design approaches for application-specific processors
  • MPSoC and GPU-based system design and challenges
  • Hardware platforms and approaches for simulations acceleration
  • Industrial experiences in embedded system prototyping

Special Session on RISC-V: Open Architectures for Rapid Prototyping

RSP 2026 will host a Special Session dedicated to RISC-V and open hardware ecosystems, highlighting their transformative role in rapid system prototyping. RISC-V, as an open and extensible instruction set architecture (ISA), is reshaping the landscape of processor design and hardware/software co-design. Its modularity and openness make it particularly suitable for: Rapid architectural exploration and customization; Hardware/software co-design and coverification; FPGA-based and ASIC prototyping; Domain-specific accelerators and heterogeneous systems; Security extensions and trusted execution environments; Toolchain innovations and simulation frameworks, and; Opensource hardware and collaborative development models. 

This special session aims to bring together researchers and practitioners working on RISC-V-based prototyping platforms, methodologies, tools, and case studies, fostering discussion on how open ISAs accelerate innovation cycles in embedded and cyber-physical systems.

Submissions are especially encouraged on topics including, but not limited to:

  • RISC-V extensions and custom instruction design
  • Prototyping infrastructures leveraging RISC-V cores
  • Formal verification and validation of RISC-V systems
  • Performance evaluation and benchmarking
  • Industrial experiences with RISC-V adoption
  • Education and research platforms built on RISC-V

Accepted papers will be included in the main RSP proceedings and presented during the dedicated special session.

The program committee invites authors to submit original unpublished full papers. Authors of selected papers will be requested to prepare a final camera-ready manuscript for the workshop proceedings and must register and attend the workshop for their paper to be published. Each technical paper must be associated with an author registration. Papers should not exceed 7 pages. Submission instructions as well as templates can be found on the RSP web site. Accepted papers will be submitted for inclusion into IEEE Xplore and ACM Digital Library.

Important Dates:

  • Abstract Submission: June 23, 2026
  • Paper Submission: June 30, 2026
  • Notification of Acceptance: July 31, 2026
  • Camera-Ready Manuscript due: August 31, 2026

General Chairs:
Georgiy Krylov, University of New Brunswick (Canada) and Amer Baghdadi, IMT Atlantique/Lab-STICC (France)

Program Chairs:
Felipe Gohring de Magalhães, Polytechnique Montréal (Canada) and Frédéric Rousseau, TIMA, University Grenoble-Alpes (France)

Publicity Chair:
Kenneth Kent, University of New Brunswick (Canada)

Publication Chair:
Olivier Muller, TIMA, University Grenoble-Alpes (France)

Paper submission
Submission instructions as well as templates can be found on the RSP web site. Electronically submit all papers using the following link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rsp2026