Data generation and collection from a real-time system for non-real-time software simulation

A method and apparatus for testing the functionality of a circuit design uses working system data that is recorded in real-time to stimulate and/or verify a software simulation of the circuit design that does not run in real-time. In a selected embodiment, a system for simulating and verifying a software model of a baseband module circuit design is described in connection with using real-time input and output data captured from a corresponding circuit in a reference platform. The captured real-time data may include digital baseband I/Q samples and/or extracted control data pertaining to the signal level, channel frequency, gain, output power, frequency offset, DC offset, or the like. The captured data may be regenerated for use as a stimulus for the software model of the circuit design and/or to verify the functionality of the design. Additional processing of the captured data can remove non-idealities that may be present in the reference platform, and can synchronize the regeneration of the captured data with the timing requirements of the non-real-time software model.