Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Mentor Graphics UK | Subject: Seamless
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 22 February 2006
Coverification tool supports Diamond
series
The Seamless product is the first coverification tool that supports Tensilica's Diamond series.
Tensilica has named the Seamless product as the premier co-verification tool for the new Diamond Standard series of processor cores The Seamless product provides designers with a virtual platform to debug hardware/software integration issues while increasing simulation throughput, thereby allowing designers to quickly validate that the system hardware and software are functionally correct before prototypes are manufactured
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 27 Feb 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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"We gave Seamless premier tool status because it provides our customers with the most effective methodology for debugging hardware/software interactions in our new Diamond series of processor cores", said Steve Roddy, Tensilica's Vice President of Marketing.
"By offering Seamless processor support packages on introduction of the Diamond family, Mentor Graphics is enabling first-pass success for designers who choose to implement these advanced, cost-effective processor cores".
The Seamless product is the first coverification tool that supports Tensilica's Diamond series, providing designers with unparalleled ability to debug hardware/software interactions while exercising production-level software on Seamless models of the Diamond series processor cores.
Further reading
Coverification speeds race to ARM development
Mentor Graphics can now provide coverification model support for the high-performance ARM1020E and ARM1022E cores from ARM.
Seamless coverification support for ARCtangent
Mentor Graphics is providing coverification model support for the ARCtangent user-customisable RISC/DSP core from ARC International.
Coverification package analyses system performance
Version 5 of the Seamless environment extends the use of the tool beyond hardware/software coverification to system performance analysis.
The Seamless hardware/software integration environment uses a virtual prototype to give designers visibility into system operations, and provides full control over test execution.
This enables designers to identify and fix hardware/software interface errors early in the development schedule, reducing the risk of failure during system bring-up and subsequent hardware respins.
In addition, the same embedded code can be run in Seamless and on the hardware prototype creating an environment where issues encountered with the hardware prototype can be reproduced and debugged in the Seamless virtual prototype.
To validate that system performance targets are met, the Seamless product's performance profiling capabilities provide accurate measurement of key design parameters, such as bus bandwidth utilisation, memory loading, and software profiling, enabling users to gauge system performance before committing to hardware.
The Seamless product is part of Mentor's Scalable Verification platform, a full suite of products that comprise a complete path from HDL simulation to emulation.
"The ever-increasing complexity of hardware and system software places tremendous pressure on the engineers charged with integrating these two components in a functional system".
"Co-operation between IP and EDA vendors is essential to help our mutual customers perform this task within an acceptable timeframe", said Serge Leef, General Manager of the System-Level Engineering Division at Mentor Graphics.
"This Mentor/Tensilica combination enables greater verification efficiency for engineers who are trying to balance processor price and performance in order to deliver high-quality, low cost electronics to market on time".
Mentor Graphics offers Seamless processor support packages for all six of the Diamond Series processor cores (Diamond 108Mini; Diamond 212GP; Diamond 232L; Diamond 570T; Diamond 330HiFi; Diamond 545CK).
The Seamless product is priced starting at $40,000, and the list price for each processor support package is $20,000.
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