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News Release from: Cadence Design Systems | Subject: Cadence Encounter Express Flow for the Cortex-A8
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 26 July 2006
Automated Design and Implementation Flow
Cadence Design Systems and ARM have announced the joint development of the first automated RTL design and implementation flow for the ARM Cortex-A8 processor.
Cadence Design Systems and ARM have announced the joint development of the first automated RTL design and implementation flow for the ARM Cortex-A8 processor This ARM-certified, specially tuned flow, called "Cadence Encounter Express Flow for the Cortex-A8 Processor," delivers an industry-leading 1,500 Dhrystone MIPS within a simple and synthesisable methodology
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Nov 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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This collaboration began in mid-2005 and culminated in a complete 90-nanometer reference implementation.
A number of RTL synthesis, placement, timing, and clock enhancements were developed specifically around the Cortex-A8 design, and are incorporated in the latest Encounter release, shipping in production this month.
"At nanometer geometries and above 500 MHz, very careful alignment of the design flow to the yield, power and physical properties of the process is mandatory".
"Working closely with ARM Artisan libraries and processor development teams, these factors were included in the flow," said Jan Willis, senior vice president, Industry Alliances at Cadence.
"ARM and Cadence together have solved the hard problems and by exploiting this work a customer team of only a few engineers can achieve Cortex-A8 processor tapeouts in three to six months".
The Cortex-A8 processor features an advanced superscalar pipeline which can execute multiple instructions at the same time and deliver more than 2.0 DMIPS per MHz.
For demanding consumer applications the Cortex-A8 synthesisable implementation will run at up to 750 MHz in generic 90-nm processes.
For next-generation mobile devices the Cortex-A8 synthesisable processor implementation will run at over 500 MHz in 65-nm low-power processes and occupy less than 4 mm2 of silicon (excluding NEON technology, Trace technology and caches).
"The superscalar Cortex-A8 processor delivers desktop performance with low power for high-volume mobile and consumer products," said John Cornish, vice president of Marketing, Processor Division, ARM.
"The new the automated flow developed in collaboration with Cadence Design Systems and certified by ARM enables our silicon Partners to implement Cortex-A8 processor-based designs quickly and efficiently, and achieve their performance and power goals".
"Today's markets are creating the ultimate challenge for designs with performance and time schedule requirements that form the basis of a unique opportunity," said Max Baron, principal analyst, In-Stat/Microprocessor Report.
"The Cortex-A8 processor synthesisable design flow from ARM and Cadence provides system-on-chip designers with options to match the challenge".
"Designers can now select part-custom implementations at frequencies higher than 1.0 GHz, or with the new flexibility from ARM opt for an easier 750 MHz synthesisable design that can be brought to market faster".
"Companies that design with embedded processors for low-power mobile and consumer applications, face unique challenges of shrinking geometries and limited battery life requiring power power-efficient design".
"Designing these ICs requires large groups of designers and months of design time," said Daya Nadamuni, vice president, Gartner Dataquest.
"Automated, synthesisable flows are one of the answers that help address these issues".
"Customer benefits are clearly attractive: faster time-to-market and confidence in achieving the performance/power targets with maximum productivity efficiency".
The ARM Cortex-A8 processor is fully supported in ARM's RealView family of embedded software and ESL tools, and has established a following among the leading industry Partners for software and tools, including CodeSourcery, Green Hills, Lauterbach, Microsoft, MontaVista, Symbian and WindRiver.
Licensees of the ARM Cortex-A8 processor include Freescale, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Samsung and Texas Instruments.
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