Motorola adopts FormalPro for basestation ASICs

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team May 27, 2002

Motorola's cellular infrastructure design centre has selected the Mentor Graphics formal verification product, FormalPro, for the validation of ASICs for its next-generation basestations.

Motorola's cellular infrastructure design centre has selected the Mentor Graphics formal verification product, FormalPro, for the validation of ASICs for its next-generation basestations.

The cellular infrastructure design centre, located in Fort Worth, Texas, is using FormalPro to verify designs from multiple locations, including Arlington Heights, Ill, and Swindon, UK.

"We have used FormalPro on three designs of up to three million gates, and the tool is enabling us to meet both our aggressive project schedules and high quality goals", said David Mueller, senior resource manager, Base Transceiver Subsystem Centre of Excellence, Motorola, Fort Worth, Texas.

As the complexity of integrated circuits grows, the time required to apply the traditional method of gate level simulation becomes prohibitively long.

FormalPro uses equivalence checking to prove that a design is functionally equivalent to a previously validated reference design.

This technique enables designers to save months in the time taken to verify their designs at all stages of the implementation process, including RTL, synthesis, design-for-test, layout and engineering change orders.

FormalPro's minimal setup requirements save designers time and enable the easy adoption of formal verification technology into any design flow.

The tool's unparalleled capacity enables full-chip verification without the need for partitioning.

Furthermore, FormalPro's extensive debugging capabilities isolate the exact location of an error and allow design teams to evaluate corrections without having to leave the tool, further saving weeks of design iterations.

"We are delighted that an industry leader such as Motorola's cellular infrastructure design center has selected FormalPro", said Reily Jacoby, FormalPro product line manager at Mentor Graphics.

"Their success demonstrates the strength of FormalPro in meeting the most demanding verification challenges".