Real time simulation plays a fundamental role in the design and validation of hardware and software for power electronic converters and electric drives. In this paper, an FPGA based real time platform for simulation of power converters and electric machines is presented. Strategies for modeling power electronic devices are explained and compared. In addition, a Thevenin based equivalent model of a switch is enhanced to model the on characteristics of these devices. This motivates the design of an electro-thermal algorithm for FPGA implementation. With respect to electric machines, different methods for modeling of the saturation characteristics are evaluated for their use in real time simulation. A procedure to efficiently compute the saturation characteristics is proposed. Lastly, a Hardware in the Loop (HIL) model of an Electric Vehicle (EV) drive is used to illustrate the machine saturation.Index Terms-Ac-dc power converters, dc-dc power converters, electric machines, ac machines, vehicle dynamics, electrothermal effects 0093-9994 (c)