Cadence Extends Its TLM-Driven Design and Verification Solution to Support Leading Embedded Software Environments

Provides Unique OVM-based Hardware/Software Co-Verification with TLM Sub-System and Unified Hardware/Software Co-Debug Graphical User Interface

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- 06 Oct 2009 -- Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), the leader in global electronic design innovation, today announced the integration of its transaction-level model (TLM)-driven design and verification solution with industry-standard embedded software environments. The Cadence® Incisive® Enterprise Simulator (IES) and Incisive Software Extensions (ISX) TLM verification solutions now support Open Verification Methodology (OVM)-based TLM hardware/software co-verification, unified TLM and C/C++ hardware/software co-debugging, plus embedded software symbolic debug support for C/C++ compilers from ARM, GNU, Green Hills Software and ARC (now part of Virage Logic). The extensions allow software developers to verify and debug their software earlier in the project and reduce time to market for the combined software and hardware product.

"Software certification and validation are becoming more important to embedded customers," said Mark Onions, director of marketing of the System Design Division at ARM. "By adding integrated support for the ARM RealView Compilation tools, the Cadence solution now allows customers to achieve better validation and time to market"

The Incisive TLM debugging capabilities provide an embedded software-oriented look-and-feel and automated probing of TLM transactions. ISX offers embedded software thread tracing that supports leading embedded software compilers, along with multiple abstraction levels from RTL to TLM. In addition, ISX automatically creates OVM test bench templates from embedded software sources to simplify hardware/software co-verification.

“As systems carry greater software functionality and are split across multiple processing platforms, the co-verification and co-debug of hardware and software is increasingly critical,” said Dr. Yankin Tanurhan, vice president and general manager at Virage Logic. “By bringing together hardware and software verification tools and methodologies, Cadence is providing our mutual customers with additional capabilities to further accelerate their SoC development efforts.”

“The embedded software development community is increasingly focused on improving quality,” said Christopher Smith, vice president of marketing at Green Hills Software, Inc. “The integration with Cadence Incisive Software Extensions provides our embedded software development customers a unique approach to software quality not available elsewhere.”

“Embedded software and verification have been highlighted by our customers and industry analysts as the key cost components of new IPs and future SoC designs,” said Ran Avinun, system design and verification marketing group director at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. “Recognizing these trends, we continue to execute on our system development strategy, adding automated co-debug and co-verification capabilities integrated with popular embedded software environments to our existing solutions.”

About Cadence

Cadence enables global electronic design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today's integrated circuits and electronics. Customers use Cadence software and hardware, methodologies, and services to design and verify advanced semiconductors, consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications equipment, and computer systems. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world to serve the global electronics industry. More information about the company, its products, and services is available at www.cadence.com.