Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Mentor Graphics UK | Subject: Platform Express
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 09 December 2004
Design creation tool supports latest
re-use specs
The Platform Express XML-based rapid SoC design creation tool supports the SPIRIT 1.0 specification for intellectual property (IP) design re-use.
The Platform Express XML-based rapid SoC design creation tool supports the SPIRIT 1.0 specification for intellectual property (IP) design re-use Released today, SPIRIT 1.0 defines a standard XML data set to ease IP integration issues during the SoC design process
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 15 Aug 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Platform accelerates SoC design and verification
Mentor Graphics describes its Platform Express environment as the semiconductor design industry's first for rapidly creating, configuring and verifying platform-based, SoC designs.
Verification platform adopts latest specs
Mentor Graphics is providing support for the SPIRIT Consortium's new 1.2 XML specification in the newest release of its Platform Express product.
"The success of SPIRIT depends on EDA vendors supporting the standard with their tools.
Mentor is a technology contributor and active participant in creating the SPIRIT standard, so it's great to see this work being successfully deployed in Platform Express", said Ralph von Vignau, Chairman of SPIRIT and Director Technology and Standards of Philips Semiconductors, Chief Technology Office - Re-use Technology Group As SoC designs grow larger and more sophisticated, the task of integrating complex IP blocks into a system becomes increasingly labour intensive and time consuming.
The SPIRIT 1.0 standard enables IP providers to create an IP databook in XML, documenting features, data files and configurability options for IP.
Further reading
Mentor Graphics and UMC deliver IC design kits
Mentor Graphics and UMC have joined to deliver a complete turnkey design flow, including the availability of IC design kits, for UMC's RF and analogue/mixed-signal process technologies.
Mentor supports TI DSPs and MCUs
Mentor Graphics is the first to reach agreement with Texas Instruments to deliver coverification processor support packages (PSPs) for Texas Instruments DSP and microcontroller solutions.
Platform Express uses the SPIRIT 1.0 XML data to automate the painstaking IP integration process, leaving designers with more time to evaluate the performance of the IP block, its behaviour and performance in the system context, explore design alternatives, and focus engineering resources on design features that differentiate the end product.
"Mentor Graphics pioneered key XML-based design and IP re-use concepts with Platform Express, enabling designers to automatically configure IP into working designs", said Serge Leef, General Manager, System-on-Chip Verification Division, Mentor Graphics.
"As a founding member of the SPIRIT Consortium, Mentor has worked to evolve its tools so designers can easily leverage a range of SPIRIT-compatible IP blocks in their SoCs".
Platform Express is IP, bus and processor architecture, and design tool agnostic, enabling designers to create multi-processor designs with any mix of bus architectures and IP providers to add support for their proprietary buses, processors and design tools.
The tool conducts all database processing functions at an XML level in an open and infinitely extensible way.
Additionally Platform Express is accompanied by a wide range of generator functions to process both SPIRIT and the Platform Express XML information, generating many different representations of sophisticated SoC designs.
Standard generator functions include full Verilog and VHDL design creation; testbench creation; level-one diagnostics software to execute on the design; and HTML design documentation.
Designs created in the Platform Express tool are automatically configured to leverage most popular verification tools including the Mentor Graphics ModelSim and Seamless products.
Platform Express is available now and can be downloaded from the Mentor website, to start designing with the example IP libraries in just a few minutes.
Availability of SPIRIT XML support is scheduled for Q1 2005.
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