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Design and Development Hardware
News Release from: Cadence Design Systems | Subject: Incisive Xtreme Server
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 22 March 2006
Verification server keeps up with Sun's
fast SPARC
Sun Microsystems, has successfully deployed the Cadence Incisive Xtreme Server to verify its latest UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology.
Sun Microsystems, has successfully deployed the Cadence Incisive Xtreme Server to verify its latest UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology The company chose the Xtreme Server, a hardware-assisted verification system, over competing offerings because of its unique ability to seamlessly integrate simulation, acceleration and in-circuit emulation across the enterprise into a single highly manageable environment
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Nov 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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However, speeding the processor through the necessary verification cycles was no small feat - which is where the Xtreme Server became so important.
"Essentially it's like 32 CPUs running simultaneously", said Jai Kumar, Design Verification Architect, and a simulation/emulation specialist at Sun.
"The complexity of verification goes up dramatically".
"Even with a cluster of Sun workstations, we could not have done the project in a timely manner running simulators alone".
Sun reported that the design team found Xtreme's VCD-on-demand feature to be a great time-saver by facilitating fast debugging which eliminated the need to resimulate and potentially hold up the project for days.
Another capability Sun found helpful was the suspend/resume feature, which suspended long simulation jobs on hardware to make way for short high-priority simulation or debug jobs.
A closely coupled software simulator along with the ability to hot swap simulation from software to hardware and vice-versa, also greatly reduced time to bring-up new designs on the Xtreme platform.
Kumar said the system-level emulation approach in the Incisive Xtreme flow enabled Sun to identify and fix bugs progressively throughout the different project phases.
Sun needed the increased flexibility and productivity, he said, because it was up against a very aggressive schedule and had to avoid silicon respins.
Xtreme enabled Sun to create an accelerated verification environment for detecting and correcting system-level integration issues while increasing system-level confidence by introducing HW/SW coverification months ahead of silicon bring-ups.
"We are excited to be working with Sun on this cutting-edge processor development, and we will continue to work closely with Sun to meet their enterprise needs", said Moshe Gavrielov, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Cadence Verification Division.
Sun today also announced the next phase of its OpenSPARC initiative by releasing hardware design specifications, EDA tools and a Solaris port for the breakthrough UltraSPARC T1 processor.
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