US Patent Office Issues Emulation/Prototyping Patent to Zeidman Technologies

SAN JOSE, Calif.--June 7, 2006--Zeidman Technologies, Inc. (www.zeidman.biz), developer of software tools for embedded system development, has been granted U.S. Patent Number 7,050,962, entitled "Method for Connecting a Hardware Emulator to a Network."

This patent covers software for connecting a hardware emulator or FPGA-based prototype to a live network. This technology, commercialized in the Molasses(R) software, provides on-the-fly buffering, speed matching, and protocol conversion. A relatively slow-running emulator or FPGA-based prototype that does not have an appropriate analog PHY interface can be easily connected to a personal computer that is running Molasses. By then connecting the PC to a live network, the emulator and network can communicate as if they were connected directly."

"I was developing Ethernet packet mangling and filtering software several years ago when emulator vendor Ikos Systems approached me to create a speed bridge," said Bob Zeidman, the inventor of Molasses and president of Zeidman Technologies. "In those days, a speed bridge was a custom circuit board. I realized that a software solution running on a standard PC would be more flexible, cost less, require less support, and would allow each customer to easily add features."

"This technology will be a big boost for the emulator and prototype vendors and their customers," said Gordon Force, CTO of IPS Consulting. "Today's chip designs consist of entire systems on a chip (SOCs) and most of them have network connections. Since silicon is expensive, you want to get out the bugs before manufacturing them. Simulation is slow and limited. Emulation and prototypes are great, but if you can't put your SOC design into a live network and transfer real data, you really don't know if it will work. Molasses solves this problem."

Molasses runs on Windows XP. Perpetual licenses are available at $25,000 per seat.

About Zeidman Technologies

Zeidman Technologies develops software tools for the efficient design of embedded systems. These tools can significantly cut development time, optimize system software, and reduce production hardware costs. The company was founded by industry-leading experts in hardware and software design and is headquartered in San Jose, California. More information about Zeidman Technologies is available at http://www.zeidman.biz/.