Mentor, AT&T use CFI interface

Electronic News, Feb 13, 1995

WILSONVILLE, ORE.--Mentor Graphics and AT&T Design Automation reported they have achieved significant performance gains over conventional Netlist technology by using interfaces based on CAD Framework Initiative (CFI) standards.

The Attsim mixed-signal simulator from AT&T and Mentor's Connectivity DataPort (CDP) now employ the CFI standard Design Representation Programming Interface (DR-PI) version 1.4, the companies said. With this interface, Attsim transfers schematic data from CDP at rates five times faster than netlisting achieved in the past.

Mentor's CDP has passed all compliance testing and received the CFI certification brand mark for DR version 1.4. AT&T Attsim is awaiting certification.

"The DR-PI within an AT&T Design Automation simulation environment already has shown four to five times performance improvements over traditional netlist translation flows," said Basant Chawla, department head at AT&T Design Automation and a director of CFI. "With the CFI DR-PI technology, we achieved in one month what normally would have taken six to nine months to develop."

Andy Graham, CEO of the Austin, Tex.-based CFI, said: "With the dramatic performance gains reported by AT&T Design Automation using the CFI DR-PI, we now see a concrete example of how end-user solutions can benefit from using standards in the real world of design. AT&T Design Automation's and Mentor Graphics' experience demonstrates that the CFI DR-PI has set the stage for true data interoperability across diverse multi-vendor environments."

Added Jack Woida, director of Mentor's OpenDoor program for third-party software: "It's satisfying to see how closely AT&T Design Automation's performance results correlate with our own internal testing of Connectivity DataPort. Our tests showed performance improvements ranging from three to six times faster than netlist translation with the previous technology available to our Open Door partners, the Design File Interface. With AT&T Design Automation's work, we now have independent commercial validation of the benefits."

Applications such as Attsim link in the target environment's CFI DR-PI library to operate in that environment. The CFI DR-PI enables Attsim to interface with a foreign database directly, without the need for multiple representations for the digital and analog portions of the circuit.

The CFI DR-PI facilitates design data access and interoperabdity (via transfer or data sharing) between applications, using a programming interface. A standard means for interactive runtime access can eliminate the requirement for translation from one design data format to another. Performance gains were realized since the interface does not have to be rewritten for different target environments.

Mentor's Design Architect CDP, certified on CFI DR-PI, is available now. AT&T's Attsim with support for the DR-PI is available and awaiting certification.