Renesas Technology Adopts ARM ESL Design Tools to Achieve Significant Time-to-Market Reduction

ARM RealView SoC Designer with MaxSim technology accelerates complex system prototyping, reducing design time

CAMBRIDGE, UK – Mar. 22, 2006 –ARM today announced that Renesas Technology, a designer and manufacturer of highly-integrated semiconductor system solutions for automotive, mobile and PC/AV markets, is the latest ARM® Partner to license the ARM RealView® SoC Designer electronic system level (ESL) solution. The RealView SoC Designer, which integrates MaxSim™ technology, will enable Renesas Technology to perform rapid architectural analysis and pre-silicon software development, significantly reducing design time.

The RealView SoC Designer, part of the ARM RealView CREATE family of tools, forms the foundation for the development of advanced digital products, enabling system designers to quickly and efficiently develop next-generation architectures. These tools support unparalleled SoC prototyping, debug and profiling capabilities enabled by the open and freely licensable Transaction Level Model (TLM) interfaces, the RealView ESL APIs available from the ARM website: (http://www.arm.com/products/DevTools/ESLmodelinterfaces.html). These interfaces are helping to develop a plug-and-play IP ecosystem for ESL models and software debuggers.

“Since the electronic market landscape is shifting continually, it is important to make a prompt decision on SoC architecture which is comprised of a diverse range of IP from one's own company and third parties,” said Osamu Tada, department manager of System Level Design and Verification Technology Dept., Renesas Technology Corp. “By adding ARM RealView SoC Designer to strengthen functions and tool lineup in our system level design environment, Renesas Technology can ensure swift SoC prototyping and deliver a product that addresses our customer’s time-to-market pressures.”

Renesas Technology joins the growing list of industry-leading ARM Partners including ST Microelectronics, Infineon, Samsung and TTPCom, to license ARM’s RealView SoC Designer ESL tool. Samsung has reported savings of approximately 40 percent in design time through the use of ESL tools.

The RealView SoC Designer provides industry leading design-flow integration by being the first production ESL tool available to support the SPIRIT Consortium standards. This support enables designers to seamlessly migrate design data between the system models in RealView SoC Designer and the third party RTL environments used for hardware design implementation and verification. Furthermore, the RealView SoC Designer tool is compliant with the widely used OSCI SystemC ESL language standard, enabling further platform compatibility.

“Time is of the essence when designing complex SoCs for cutting-edge products, with our Partners continually seeking a competitive advantage, it is imperative we deliver solutions that will have an impact in the overall development process,” said Seth Bernsen, product manager, ESL, ARM. “By validating the system architecture early in the development process, the RealView SoC Designer enables ARM Partners such as Renesas Technology to meet stringent time-to-market constraints in the face of increased competition.”

About ARM

ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from mobile, home and enterprise solutions to embedded and emerging applications. ARM’s comprehensive product offering includes 16/32-bit RISC microprocessors, data engines, 3D processors, digital libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and development tools, as well as analog functions and high-speed connectivity products. Combined with the company’s broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com