Carbon and Tensilica Partner for Pre-Silicon Firmware Development

Pact Links Tensilica Processor Models with Carbon Virtual Platform

ACTON, MASS. –– November 18, 2008 –– Carbon Design Systems, the leading supplier of tools for the automatic creation, validation and deployment of system-level models and Tensilica, the leading provider of embedded processor cores for the dataplane, announced today that they have partnered to integrate Tensilica’s processor models into the Carbon SoC Designer virtual platform. Tensilica processors are fully integrated with SoC Designer and enable users to perform implementation-accurate architectural analysis and pre-silicon firmware development.

Fast Platform for Firmware Development

“Tensilica’s cycle-accurate processor models, running together with implementation-accurate Carbon Models in an SoC Designer environment, will enable users to debug complex firmware and hardware issues well in advance of silicon,” stated Bill Neifert, vice president of business development for Carbon Design Systems. “SoC Designer’s industry-leading speed will also enable this to be done more quickly than with any other virtual platform. In addition, designers can leverage SoC Designer’s advanced profiling features to quickly see the positive impact Tensilica processors can have in the dataplane of their SOC designs.”

“Carbon’s SOC Designer is a valuable platform for our customers to model their SOC designs before committing them to silicon,” stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica’s vice president of marketing and business development. “It’s particularly useful for modeling large designs with multiple cores doing control and dataplane processing.”

About the Integration

Tensilica’s Xtensa customizable and Diamond Standard cores have been fully integrated into the SoC Designer virtual platform environment. In addition, all of the XTSC (Xtensa SystemC) components in Tensilica’s system design portfolio also have corresponding SoC Designer components. Designers can use SoC Designer to assemble and execute Tensilica based system-on-chip (SoC) designs ranging from the simplest sample designs up to complex, multiprocessor designs containing multiple Tensilica and non-Tensilica cores. The processor models contain an integrated software debugger to give designers complete software visibility. The integration also links with SoC Designer’s advanced breakpointing capabilities to enable breakpoints in both software and hardware.

Availability

The Tensilica processor integration is available now from Carbon Design Systems.

About Carbon Design Systems

Carbon Design Systems offers the leading system validation solution for complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs. Target applications range from model generation and deployment to virtual platform creation, execution, and analysis. Carbon provides 100% implementation accuracy on the critical components required for accurate architectural analysis and pre-silicon hardware/software validation. Solutions are based on open industry standards, including SystemC, IP-XACT, Verilog, VHDL, OSCI TLM, MDI, SCML, CASI, CADI and CAPI. Carbon’s customers are systems, semiconductor, and IP companies that focus on wireless, networking, and consumer electronics. Carbon is headquartered at 125 Nagog Park, Acton, Mass., 01720. Telephone: (978) 264-7300. Facsimile: (978) 264-9990. Email: info@carbondesignsystems.com. Website: www.carbondesignsystems.com.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc., is the recognized leader in customizable dataplane processors.   Dataplane Processor Units (DPUs) consist of performance intensive DSP (audio, video, imaging, and baseband signal processing) and embedded RISC processing functions (security, networking, and deeply embedded control).  The automated design tools behind all of Tensilica's application specific processor cores enable rapid customization to meet specific data-plane performance targets.  Tensilica's DSPs and processors power top tier semiconductor companies, innovative start-ups, and system OEMs for high-volume products including mobile phones, consumer electronics devices (including portable media players, digital TV, and broadband set top boxes), computers, and storage, networking and communications equipment. For more information on Tensilica's patented benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com .