CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
6 March 2006
Product News
CoWare's Latest Software Release Aligns Strategic Technologies into Cohesive, Platform-Driven ESL Design Environment
CoWare® Inc. has aligned the strategic technologies it has developed and acquired into a new set of solutions for platform-driven ESL design. Platform-driven design is the major design trend in the electronics industry as system-on-chip (SoC) developers shift focus from individual products to product platforms that define a basic architecture used to derive multiple products over a period of time. With its native backbone of SystemC technology, CoWare has aligned its three product families into one product line that enables three key solutions for collaborative platform rm-driven ESL design: SoC platform capture and architecture exploration, custom processor design, and algorithm design.
"Since its inception, CoWare has been leading the way to ESL design. A sequence of strategic technology acquisitions, the pioneering work in the definition of the industry-standard SystemC modeling language, and the integration of all these technologies has produced the industry's most comprehensive solution for platform-driven ESL design," said Alan Naumann, CoWare CEO. "CoWare customers are embracing the platform-driven ESL design approach because of the economic and business value it delivers and the impressive results they achieve."
"Our Elemental Computing product consists of a unique set of processing elements, and a sophisticated interconnect capable of executing complex signal processing and general purpose applications," stated Jaime Cummins, CEO, ElementCXI. "CoWare is leading the way with the critical set of ESL technologies and the vision to integrate them in a meaningful way for our product platform development. We look forward to rapidly deploying this solution to embedded application developers in the multimedia and automotive markets that we will serve with our first silicon."
The Need for Product Platforms
Multimedia convergence, especially in the consumer electronics markets, drives the need for increasingly complex product architectures. The ability to record and play back multiple video streams, high-quality audio, high-speed wireless communications, and a multitude of other applications drives the need for complex SoC designs with multiple busses, multiple processors, and a variety of complex peripherals. At the same time the software content of such devices has been growing exponentially.
Semiconductor companies are being forced to change their product development strategies to successfully address the increasing market demands. Their focus has shifted from individual products to product platforms. A product platform defines a basic architecture that is used to derive multiple products over a period of time. A cell phone product platform, for example, may be under development for two to three years, and, once completed, it can be used to derive as many as 50 different products (cell phones) per year for yet another three or more years.
Platform-Driven ESL Design
The design of product platforms poses a new set of requirements on the design tools and methodologies being used. The traditional electronic design automation (EDA) design flow, from RTL to GDSII, is no longer sufficient to capture the platform architecture, explore and evaluate alternatives, and eventually help optimize it. The platform architecture must be captured at a higher level of abstraction -- processors, buses, and peripherals need to be modeled in a manner that allows the execution of real software applications on the platform model so the architecture can be properly evaluated and explored. And, because platform-driven ESL design does this so well, this methodology is being adopted by many systems and semiconductor companies today.
CoWare Product Offerings for Platform-Driven ESL Design
CoWare technologies have been offering solutions to a number of design challenges, such as creating custom processors and processor models with LISATekT; defining and evaluating digital signal processing algorithms with SPW; and modeling complex logic functions such as bus architectures and peripheral IP blocks using ConvergenSC®. The combination of these technologies enables a new level of design aimed at the capture, evaluation, and optimization of the entire product platform.
"Instead of choosing individual tools and technologies, our customers have been increasingly viewing CoWare as their primary ESL design solution vendor," said AK Kalekos, vice-president marketing and business development, CoWare. "In recognition of the trend to make a 'CoWare decision' for ESL design solutions, we have initiated a renaming of our individual product lines to reflect their use in a consistent and collaborative 'Platform-Driven ESL Design' environment."
• CoWare Platform Architect (formerly ConvergenSC Platform Architect): Is the SystemC-based graphical environment for capturing the entire product platform and the dashboard for initiating the platform analysis functions.
• CoWare Model Designer (formerly ConvergenSC Model Designer): Is the SystemC-based modeling and simulation environment for capturing complex IP blocks and verifying them.
• CoWare Model Library (formerly ConvergenSC Model Library): Provides an extensive library of processor, bus and peripheral models that are commonly used in product platforms.
• CoWare Processor Designer (formerly LISATek Processor Designer): Enables the creation of custom processors or programmable hardware accelerators and their models so they can be incorporated into product platforms.
• CoWare Signal Processing Designer (formerly SPW): Enables the design and analysis of complex signal processing algorithms and exports these algorithm implementations as blocks that can be incorporated in product platforms. (See related announcement at http://www.CoWare.com/news/)
Availability
CoWare's platform-driven ESL design solutions are available today. For additional information about specific products, visit http://www.CoWare.com . For pricing information, contact the local CoWare sales representative.
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