Aptix Offers High Performance, Transaction-Based Co-Emulation; Transaction-Level Verification Raises Level of Abstraction for System on Chip Designers

Business Wire,  Sept 16, 2003  

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Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 2003

Aptix Corporation, a leader in emulation and pre-silicon prototyping, announced today that it is shipping the only reconfigurable hardware platform to run at multi-megahertz speeds and offer high-performance transaction-based emulation based on the Accellera SCE-MI standard-Aptix SoC Validation Lab(TM). The new product incorporates technology from Zaiq Technologies, and includes Zaiq's extensive libraries of verification IP.

By combining transactions with emulation, Aptix pre-silicon prototyping systems provide fast system validation speeds that can shave six to nine months from a development cycle.

"Simulation performance can't keep up with today's large designs," noted, Charlie Miller, Sr. vice president of marketing and business development at Aptix. "Our Aptix SoC Validation Lab speeds up embedded electronic system validation by 1000's of times, and its use of the Accellera SCE-MI standard supports interoperability."

"On a 400,000 gate network-processor design, we see speed-ups of up to 4000x over a Verilog software simulator running on a Sun Ultrasparc 60. On larger designs, the improvement is greater," Miller added.

The Aptix SoC Validation Lab targets embedded system on chip designs and increases productivity because of its fast cycle time and because it enables validation to occur at a higher level of abstraction. It allows test developers to reuse the same testbenches throughout the validation cycle, from high-level system models, through RTL simulation, to emulation.

Working at the transaction level permits test developers and hardware designers to remain at a higher level of abstraction, closer to their application domain, thus making them much more productive. Software developers can execute testbench scenarios running at multi-megahertz speeds, rather than connecting expensive test equipment to an emulator or prototype to simulate the real operating environments of their designs.

Galaxy's Service Customers Are among the First Users

According to Archer Yang, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Galaxy in Taiwan, "Verifying SoC designs has become a huge bottleneck. Many of our customers have asked for help. We are supplying access to the Aptix SoC Validation Lab to customers on a service basis to help verify their designs. By using the combination of transactions and co-emulation, they can speed verification performance by orders of magnitude."

Aptix and Zaiq Products

The Aptix SoC Validation Lab consists of the Aptix System Explorer hardware platform for building reconfigurable pre-silicon prototypes, Aptix Expeditor(TM) software (formerly called Aptix MVP), the Zaiq Pre-configured Reusable Environment and testing Platform (PREP(TM)) and verification IP components from Zaiq's SystemWare(TM) libraries that support standard protocols such as Ethernet, SPI, PCI, PCI-X, Packet over SONET, USB and AMBA.

What's New

-- Fast validation 1000's times that of software-only simulation

-- Seamless migration from system-level simulation to RTL

simulation to emulation using the same testbench

-- Synthesizable testbenches

-- Improved test development productivity

-- Support for the Accellera SCE-MI industry standard for

transaction analysis for interoperability

Pricing and Availability

For current Aptix customers, the price of the Aptix SoC Validation Lab starts at $75,000 (USD) for a one-year license. This includes Zaiq libraries and supporting software and the SCE-MI interface.

About Aptix

Aptix Corporation is a leading provider of high-performance pre-silicon prototype (PSP) solutions to System-on-Chip (SoC) developers, enabling them to accelerate their time-to-market, reduce costs and improve their product performance. Aptix's reconfigurable and portable PSPs enable hardware developers to integrate custom logic and to verify and debug complex SoC designs in a real-world environment and software developers to accelerate the firmware and application software development timeline. In addition, these flexible prototypes can be deployed for field-testing and to multiple customers for evaluation, providing a development head start. Visit Aptix at http://www.aptix.com.

Aptix is headquartered at 1249 Innsbruck Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Phone: (408) 541-4700.

Notes to editors: A white paper and graphics are available on request.

Acronyms and definition:

PSP                Pre Silicon Prototype
RTL                Register Transfer Level
SCE-MI             Standard Co-Emulation Modeling Interface
This standard defines a high-speed, asynchronous, transaction-level
interface between simulators or testbenches and hardware-assisted
solutions such as emulation or rapid prototypes and allows for re-use
of models among different design tools. More information is at
www.accellera.org.
SoC                System on Chip

Aptix is a registered trademark of Aptix Corporation. Aptix SoC Validation Lab and Aptix Expeditor are trademarks of Aptix Corporation.