Atrenta's SpyGlass SoC Addresses Logic Integration Issues that Plague IC Design Efforts

Helps Designers Create Logical Virtual Prototype

SAN JOSE, Calif. - May 20, 2002 - Atrenta(TM) Inc., the Predictive Analysis(TM) company, today announced SpyGlassä SoC, the first design tool that addresses the logical issues designers encounter when integrating multiple IP (intellectual property) blocks from different vendors and design teams into one complex SoC (system-on-chip) design. By using SpyGlass SoC to create a logical virtual prototype, designers can predict and eliminate problems that normally only show up much later in the design process. With SpyGlass SoC, design teams can cut their overall SoC design times by 20 to 30 percent, according to company estimates.

"Integrating multiple blocks into a single SoC design has become a huge productivity issue," stated Darren Wedgwood, EDA Development & Synthesis Methodology Manager, Motorola Semiconductor. "With SpyGlass SoC, we can identify synthesis, DFT and Motorola Semiconductor Re-Use Standards compliance issues up front, when each block is created. SpyGlass saves us significant time and expensive EDA tool license usage on our SoC projects by eliminating the need for extensive iterations to solve these issues later in the design cycle."

To manage the complexity, SoC designs are divided among multiple design teams and important blocks of the design are often re-used or purchased from third parties. Integrating all of these blocks has become a major issue. What if different blocks have different clocking schemes? What if parts of the design don’t include test mode bypass for ATPG? What if most of the blocks use a positive edge reset, but some reset on the negative edge? What if parts of the design violate best practice rules for down-stream design tools?

These issues and much more, arise from the logical design, not the physical design. A lot of attention has been paid to solving the physical aspects of SoC integration and there are many tools available for creating a silicon virtual prototype. However, the silicon virtual prototype isn’t concerned with the logical architecture of the chip. So, with a physical virtual prototype, a chip with any number of logical errors can make it through the physical design process.

“Creating a logical virtual prototype is even more important than creating a silicon virtual prototype,” stated Atrenta’s President and CEO, Dr. Ajoy Bose. “A design may place-and-route beautifully but contain logical errors that render it useless. Even one such error may cause extensive design iterations and silicon respin. With SpyGlass SoC, the designers and system integrators can get it right the first time and eliminate the most vexing integration problems.”

Jonathan Yee, President & CEO, JTA Research, added, “SpyGlass SoC works like a polarizer. It takes our design and integration requirements and aligns all the RTL blocks for quick integration. It creates a level of consistency and reusability in our IP sourcing chain as well as the design practices and ensures that the all the blocks and the IP fit the SoC integration standards that the design flow requires.”

Discovering the Hard Logical Problems
SpyGlass SoC employs a unique predictive analysis technique that includes the structure and function of the design and finds problems in RTL that are not easily detectable by other methods including rule checkers, simulators and formal verifiers. SpyGlass SoC addresses key SoC integration issues including clock phasing, synchronization, verification, reuse, and testability. The presence of multiple clock domains in a SoC design is a common source of some of the most time-consuming design issues. Signals generated in one clock domain may be consumed in other clock domains. Correct operation of a chip can only be ensured if rules governing correct use of signals across asynchronous clock boundaries are followed. SpyGlass SoC identifies signal paths that cross clock domains and analyzes whether paths conform to selected synchronization rules.

Critical verification and testability issues are quickly identified by SpyGlass SoC. SpyGlass SoC detects problematic race conditions and combinational loops at the full-chip level prior to synthesis and simulation. SpyGlass ensures that test mode controls, built into lower level blocks, are compatible and that test clock domains are synchronized. This is extremely important because these problems usually cannot be discovered until the RTL is synthesized and flattened to remove the hierarchy. Even then, these errors often are not caught until test verification, months into the design process, requiring weeks of rework just to get back to a clean gate-level design, let alone fixing the original RTL.

Easy Debugging and Problem Isolation
SpyGlass is designed to pin point complex design issues directly back into the RTL code and provide intuitive graphical and textual based output to accelerate problem diagnosis. Rules that depend on unblocked paths not only identify the paths in question but also highlight the gate or element where blocking occurs, thereby focusing the designer’s attention not only on the existence of a problem but also on the most likely cause.

Pricing and Availability
SpyGlass SoC is bundled with the base SpyGlass product at no additional charge. SpyGlass runs on Sun/Solaris 2.5 - 2.8, HP-UX 10.2, HP-UX 11 and RedHat Linux 6.2 and above. SpyGlass supports VHDL and Verilog. It is compatible with industry-wide design tools and environments, assuring that it can be used seamlessly within a customer's current design flow.

About Atrenta
Atrenta offers a new approach in accelerating the design of complex ASICs, FPGAs, and SoCs through predictive analysis. Its SpyGlass software is the first tool that performs detailed structural analysis on register-transfer-level Verilog and VHDL code in order to check for complex problems, which include coding styles, RTL-handoff, design re-use, clock/reset requirements, and much more. Its breakthrough and innovative “look-ahead” capability incorporates a fast-synthesis engine, logic evaluator, and testability technologies. Atrenta has over forty-five customers, such as Agere, Agilent, Apple, ARM, Canon, Compaq, Fujitsu, Hitachi, LSI Logic, Motorola, National Semiconductor, NCR, Nortel and Olympus, who are using SpyGlass to achieve shorter overall design cycles, increased design productivity and lower costs. Atrenta is headquartered in San Jose, California, with European headquarters in Swindon, England, a research and development center in India, and sales and support distributors in Japan, Taiwan, India and Singapore. For further information, visit the Atrenta website at www.atrenta.com or call 1-866 ATRENTA.