Software speeds ASIC prototype development

Enhancements in the latest version of the Certify ASIC RTL prototyping software package aim to further accelerate the ASIC verification process.

Enhancements in the latest version of the Certify ASIC RTL prototyping software package aim to further accelerate the ASIC verification process.

The new version of Certify offers enhanced quick partitioning technology (QPT) with Certify pin multiplier (CPM) support that provides designers with an automated flow for prototyping an ASIC design using an off-the-shelf FPGA board or other hardware, even when complex I/O multiplexing is needed.

To further optimise its ASIC prototyping capabilities, the new Certify 6.3 software incorporates the latest compilers and mappers from Synplicity's Synplify Pro advanced FPGA synthesis software, providing the same language support for VHDL and Verilog, as well as the same quality of results (QoR) as the industry-leading Synplify Pro software.

Synplicity has also signed up AMO and EVE as hardware board partners for Certify software, helping designers looking for complete, rapid prototype development solutions.

"Fitting an ASIC design onto an FPGA board is a complex problem", said Brian Caslis, Director of Marketing for the Certify product line at Synplicity.

"Using a bigger board with more FPGA devices may not address the problem because as the ASIC is partitioned across the FPGAs, I/O interconnects may actually increase.

We believe the Certify tool's new ability to automatically multiplex the I/O when necessary will result in huge time savings, and enable more designers to leverage FPGAs to prototype their ASIC designs".

The Certify software also now provides support for the Xilinx Spartan III and Altera Stratix GX device families and enables designers to mix both Altera Apex and Stratix devices on a single board.

This allows designers to lower their overall prototyping costs by using both high-performance and lower-cost devices in the same hardware prototyping environment.

The ability to mix Xilinx devices on a single board was introduced with the previous version of the Certify software.

The Synplicity Partners in Prototyping Programme program brings together leading hardware, software and design service providers to offer a proven methodology for building FPGA-based prototypes quickly and easily, further speeding the overall ASIC design and development cycle.

Once these complementary solutions are proven to work with Synplicity's leading Certify software tool, the documentation and technical information are then made available on the Partners in Prototyping web page on the Synplicity website, allowing ASIC designers to easily find the latest solutions for their prototyping needs.

The Certify software also includes partner board files, allowing designers to begin prototyping their designs immediately.

The addition of AMO and EVE brings the total number of board partners to seven, which also includes The Dini Group, Hardi Electronics, Gidel, Nallatech and ProDesign Electronics Corp.

The AMO Venus-X prototyping platform, with its widely configurable hardware concept and massive external connectivity, enables accelerated ASIC verification, hardware-assisted software debugging, and implementation of massive parallel algorithms at an early stage of product development with a system complexity expandable to 48 million gates.

"With our proven track record, AMO is well positioned to assist customers in their RTL prototyping and intellectual property integration efforts", said Martin Hessing, Project Manager, AMO.

"Synplicity's advanced capabilities with the Certify software, combined with our expertise with high-performance programmable logic, means that a customer can integrate prototyping into their project schedule with confidence that they will be fully supported".

EVE provides a hardware-assisted verification platform used to accelerate the verification process of ASIC designs and the software development cycle for embedded software designs.

Installed on a designer's desktop, EVE ZeBu verifies designs up to 12 million ASIC equivalent gates, offering the same debugging capabilities found in high-end emulation systems, but at a higher speed and at a fraction of the cost.

"Synplicity's Certify software is the premier FPGA prototyping software on the market", said Luc Burgun, President and CEO of EVE.

"With our tight product integration, we believe Synplicity's customers have a compelling reason to adopt our design validation technology to speed up the verification cycle by five to six orders of magnitude compared to existing technologies.

Using our platform in combination with the Certify software, designers can still enjoy full visibility into the design at run-time without compiling internal probes".

Certify 6.3 is available now.

Pricing starts at US $45,000 for a one-year time-based licence.

Current Certify customers on maintenance will be upgraded at no additional cost.

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