Renesas & CoWare Collaborate to Accelerate the Deployment of SH-based Virtual Platforms in Mobile, Automotive and Digital Imaging Applications

• Development of a verified SH-4A high-speed model and single and dual-core virtual platforms;
• Focus on the next-generation EXREAL, SH-Navi and SH-Mobile platforms with CoWare as Renesas’ selected virtual platform solution provider;
• Joint go-to-market alignment to serve Renesas system users.

-- CoWare, Inc., the leading supplier of electronic system virtualization software and services, announced today a collaboration with Renesas Technology Corp. aimed at delivering better development tools to Renesas’ SH core-based software development community using virtual platforms. With a strong presence in automotive, mobile and digital imaging applications, Renesas and CoWare will focus initially on enabling the next-generation multi-Core EXREAL, SH-Navi and SH-Mobile platforms. The joint development and go-to-market alignment will result in reduced development costs, improved developer productivity, optimized system for reduced bills of material (BOM) and faster time-to-market for Renesas and its customers.

The collaboration between Renesas and CoWare will deliver a Renesas-verified, high-speed model of the SH-4A processor core as well as single- and multi-core reference virtual platforms. CoWare virtual platforms are the virtualized representation of an electronic system used for the purpose of software development. It removes the dependency on the availability of expensive hardware prototypes and development test benches and provides cost-effective software development capabilities for debugging and analysis.

“Providing more effective development tools enables our customers to reduce costs for development and fabrication. Virtual platforms provide such productivity enhancement capabilities to the software and system developers,” said Atsushi Hasegawa, Deputy Executive General Manager, Design and Development Unit, Renesas Technology. “As we have selected CoWare as our virtual platform provider, the collaboration will enable us to leverage their superior virtual platform technology for the SH-4A-based platforms and to have a joint go-to-market approach that will greatly serve our customers.”

“Renesas strives to deliver the best solutions to its customers. CoWare is proud to support Renesas in its objectives with our virtual platform technology,” said Marc Serughetti, vice president of marketing and business development, CoWare. “CoWare brings to the joint collaboration its leadership and expertise in developing and deploying high-speed processor core models and multi-core virtual platforms with the objective to benefit both Renesas and its customers.”

Availability

The verified SH-4A model and reference virtual platform will be available from CoWare for early customer access in Q2 2009. The model and reference virtual platforms will support all CoWare software development capabilities including high-speed simulation, synchronized multi-core debugging and platform analysis and checkpoint restart.

About CoWare

CoWare is the leading global supplier of electronic system virtualization software and services. IP, semiconductor, and electronics companies use CoWare virtualization solutions to design better processor- and software-intensive products faster. CoWare solutions solve the new design challenges associated with platform architecture design, platform verification, application sub-system design, processor design, DSP algorithm design, and software development, and are based on open industry standards including SystemC. These solutions also enable IP and semiconductor companies to implement more effective go-to-market strategies. CoWare's corporate investors include ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMH)], Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ: CDNS), STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), and Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE). CoWare is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and has offices around the world. For more information about CoWare and its products and services visit http://www.coware.com.