CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
21 June 2004
Product News
Synopsys and Virtio to Connect Hardware and Software Development Flows with Advanced ESL Solution
Synopsys, Inc. and Virtio, a provider of Virtual Platforms for embedded software development, announced that the companies are collaborating on a comprehensive electronic system level (ESL) solution that connects hardware and software development flows for leading system-on-chip (SoC) platforms. Under the collaboration, Virtio and Synopsys ( http://www.synopsys.com ) will integrate Virtio's high-speed software models for advanced SoC platforms, including models for popular embedded processors, with Synopsys' best-in-class, system-to-RTL verification solutions in the DiscoveryT Verification Platform. This integrated, ESL verification solution will enable the concurrent development and verification of hardware and software throughout the design cycle, resulting in significantly faster releases of platform-based SoC products. The parties also announced that Synopsys has made an equity investment in Virtio.
"Up to this point, architecture models and pre-silicon software platform models have been developed independently from each other," said Paul Werp, director of marketing, Cellular Systems Software at Texas Instruments. "The Virtio-Synopsys collaboration will help ensure shortened, predictable design cycles and help us deliver trusted, pre-silicon software development models to our customers six to nine months earlier."
Virtio's Virtual Platform software models provide engineers with high-speed, pre-silicon software execution environments that allow them to develop SoC-related software before hardware is available. The integration of Virtio's Virtual Platforms with the Synopsys System Studio system-level design environment will enable engineers to concurrently develop and verify SoC software and hardware, with the confidence that the software is fully compatible with the final hardware. The integration of System Studio with the Synopsys VCS® RTL verification solution and the Vera® testbench automation tool provides a unified system-to-RTL verification environment that combined with Virtio's solution will ensure that virtual software platform models, architecture models, and RTL models stay mutually consistent. The result will be a predictable, concurrent hardware and software development flow that substantially reduces the product design cycle and lowers project risk.
The increasing software content in today's advanced SoC platforms requires a concurrent development flow spanning hardware and software. The result is the need to start software development and verification well in advance of hardware delivery to ensure the timely availability of software components. The key challenge is to ensure that an accurate, high-speed software execution environment is available early in the project, and that it stays consistent with the evolving architecture and hardware design during the course of the development process.
The integrated Synopsys-Virtio solution will be available for early customers in the third quarter of calendar 2004. General availability will begin in the fourth quarter of calendar 2004.
Virtio speeds the creation and distribution of software models of embedded systems for early software development and integration. These software models, called Virtual Platforms, help embedded system suppliers and developers shorten the design cycle and break down critical time-to-market barriers. Many Virtual Platforms are available prior to the hardware to significantly shorten hardware/software integration. Virtio is based in Campbell, California in the U.S.A with development centers in Campbell and the Alba Centre, Livingston, Scotland. Additional information about Virtio is available at http://www.virtio.com
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