CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
4 October 2004
Product News
Mentor Graphics Advances Scalable Verification
Mentor Graphics announced key extensions to its Scalable VerificationT solution with a new version of its popular ModelSim® simulator and advanced verification technology from the recently completed acquisition of 0-In® Design Automation.
With the ModelSim 6.0 simulator and the 0-In product line, Mentor Graphics® now offers standards-based support for the most advanced verification methodologies. Offering support for assertion-based verification and coverage-driven verification flows, as well as verification IP, Mentor's Scalable Verification platform offers engineers a faster way to reach verification closure than current methods.
"Existing verification methodologies have run out of steam," said Robert Hum, vice-president and general manager, Design Verification and Test Division, Mentor Graphics. "Designers are looking for new solutions that can dramatically increase their productivity. Methodologies and tools like assertions, static analysis, functional coverage, and coverage-driven verification are required to close the verification gap. New capabilities in our ModelSim 6.0 release and the acquisition of the 0-In products enable us to deliver these advanced solutions today."
Mentor's Scalable Verification solution is centered on the ModelSim simulation environment, with standards support for Verilog 2001, VHDL, PSL, SystemC and SystemVerilog. The ModelSim 6.0 tool offers engineers verification methodology enhancements to support better and faster verification including support for assertion-based verification, functional coverage, and coverage-driven verification.
Offering a native assertion engine as well as assertion debugging, the ModelSim 6.0 product provides verification engineers a better way of testing designs. Using assertion-based verification (ABV), verification engineers can more easily test a design to ensure the design matches its functional specification. The ModelSim 6.0 simulator also includes functional coverage capabilities that allow engineers to track the effectiveness of their verification efforts. Combining assertions with functional coverage enables coverage-driven verification, in which designers use feedback from testing to target their successive tests, resulting in greatly improved productivity and effectiveness.
The new features in the ModelSim 6.0 simulator extend across Mentor's Scalable Verification platform. Tighter integration with the Seamless® Co-Verification Environment, Mentor's industry-leading hardware/software co-verification tool, the VStationT family of emulators, and the ADVanceT MS high-performance analog/mixed-signal simulator, provides designers with state-of-the-art verification of the analog, digital and software verification problems they face today.
The acquisition of 0-In Design Automation extends Mentor Graphics verification solution with a world-class engineering team including well-known experts in synthesis, formal analysis and assertion-based verification. Twelve of the 15 largest electronics companies have already adopted the 0-In tools and methodologies in their integrated circuit (IC) design verification flows.
Combining static and dynamic techniques, the 0-In tools offer technology that makes it possible to find more bugs quickly and efficiently. The tools enhance the value of both simulation and emulation verification technologies. For example, by enabling assertion-based verification and functional coverage on the VStation series of emulators, the tools enable designers to capture completeness metrics on their high-performance emulation runs, greatly enhancing their ability to calculate how complete their testing cycle is.
"We chose the 0-In products, because of the attractiveness of their existing product line and promise of the future," said Hum. "A lot of products in this space aren't battle-tested, and we are thrilled to have acquired mature products that are working in key customers' flows today. With the reach of the Mentor sales force, we'll be able to bring the 0-In solutions to a much wider selection of customers."
Mentor Graphics will continue to support the 0-In existing products and customers and will expand distribution and support of these products with Mentor Graphics' global sales and support organization. 0-In products will become part of the Mentor Graphics Scalable Verification platform and also continue to work with products from other EDA vendors.
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