Building a system now includes software, but defining the software stack is a mounting challenge for engineers. What used to be almost exclusively drivers now includes RTOSes and OSes, executable files, middleware, firmware, IP, embedded software and applications.
Aug 26, 2010

Battery life has become the Achilles heel for the success of mobile software platforms, such as Android. This article outlines how Virtual Prototypes (VPs) provide all the necessary elements for a debug solution that can spot and remove power related defects from software.
Jul 20, 2010

An introduction to how virtual prototyping takes a pair of scissors to development time and costs. Developing software for hardware prototypes that aren’t yet available has always been a complex, time-consuming task with inherent risk. The arrival of effective, easy-to-use development tools was a significant first step toward developing code faster with fewer bugs.
May 10, 2010

What will 2010 bring for verification and system-level design? The semiconductor “beasts” that need to be verified are getting more and more complex. These beasts are developed at smaller technology nodes, and with the declining number of design starts. Programmability plays a significant role, both in ASIC and ASSP designs, since users have to deal with more and more processors.
Jan 08, 2010

System-Level Design sat down with Frank Schirrmeister, director of product development in Synopsys’ solutions group; Ghislain Kaiser CEO of DOCEA Power: John Sanguinetti, CTO at Forte Design Systems; Vincent Perrier, Cofluent Design co-founder and director of products and marketing.
Oct 28, 2009

By combining the advantages of software and hardware-based development methods, system prototyping enables early and productive software development.
Oct 26, 2009

System Level Design sat down to discuss issues in system-level verification with Frank Schirrmeister, director of product development in Synopsys’ solutions group; Donald Cramb, director of professional services at Eve; Patrick Sheridan, director of marketing at CoWare, and Scott Sandler, president of SpringSoft USA. This article is one part of three and contains excerpts of that conversation. You should see all three parts of the conversation.
Jul 31, 2009

At least for the last decade, we have been hearing about the worlds of embedded software and hardware growing closer, but there has been very little measurable evidence to back up those claims. Some results confirmed what market researchers had predicted: the percentage of users claiming that their overall software effort was ....
Jul 29, 2009

Recent market research indicates the development effort for software running on 90nm chip designs has already surpassed the effort of the hardware development. The projection for 2011 is less than 40% of the chip development cost is spent on hardware. Software now dominates project cycles and determines when a chip can get into volume production.
Jul 24, 2009

The 2007 edition of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) states that “design cost is the greatest threat to the continuation of the semiconductor roadmap.” While this claim has been made even long before then, in light of the current economic situation, its meaning could not be more relevant. Given that the semiconductor industry has been through economic cycles before, however, the ITRS is also able to suggest a remedy. It’s called innovation!
May 28, 2009

Recent surveys show that the number one issues in car electronics are cost reduction and better collaboration across the complex automotive design chain of IP providers, semiconductor providers, subsystem suppliers and system integrators. With millions of lines of software code powering modern cars and the number of processors today already exceeding 80 (and further growing), software development becomes the critical component determining success of automotive development projects.
Apr 15, 2009

System-level design is all about thinking early and implementing later. So why not apply what we already know? We even have statistics. Fifteen years ago, I was part of projects where we measured how effective methods like manual code inspection were in preventing bugs from propagating into the next project phase.
Mar 11, 2009

The debate about design at the electronic system level (ESL) seems to be in full swing again. Some claim there is too much “stuff” in ESL and basically suggest incremental approaches. Others say that today’s approaches aren’t visionary enough and are calling for the “real ESL to please stand up.”
Feb 12, 2009

As Moore’s Law continues its relentless march, the “electronic system level” (ESL), which is the next higher level of abstraction above the register transfer level (RTL), continues to be adopted as an answer to the ever-increasing complexity of designing semiconductors.
Dec 17, 2008

SystemC: Now open for embedded software. This article reviews the key technology components of the SystemC TLM-2.0 specification and their impact on embedded software designers using virtual platforms.
Dec 09, 2008

Modern automotive subsystems depend on an integrated mix of electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, and software technologies.
Oct 06, 2008

If you talk to vendors of electronic system-level (ESL) design tools, you’ll find that many have a unique approach to this evolving technology.
May 12, 2008

Promising an integrated platform for system-level electronic design, simulation, and verification, Synopsys Inc. and Zuken have announced a partnership to link Synopsys' Saber mixed-signal simulator to Zuken's CR-5000 pc-board design environment.
May 30, 2007

Although Synplicity Inc. left the ASIC synthesis market last year, the company is targeting ASIC designers once again with a new edition of its Synplify DSP product.
Apr 17, 2007

The amount of DSP capability now available in programmable-logic chips is formidable, and it is a route that design teams are increasingly pursuing to add hardware signal-processing capability, especially in an acceleration or co-processing mode.
Mar 01, 2007