Abstract: The present patent document relates to a method and apparatus for more efficiently simulating a circuit design (DUT), making use of a hardware functional verification device such as a processor-based emulator. A set of linked databases are compiled for the DUT, one for hardware emulation (without timing information for the DUT) and one for software simulation (including timing information) that remain synchronized during runtime. The compiled design is run in a hardware emulator during an initialization/configuration phase and the state saved. The state is then swapped to a software simulator where timing information, such as SDF timing, may be honored during the second part of the run and the user's test bench stimuli applied to the design.