Cadence forms consortium to tackle design integration

Electronic News, Dec 8, 1997 by Ann Steffora

SAN JOSE, CALIF.--Recognizing that reusing functional blocks during system design is becoming increasingly important, Cadence Design Systems Inc. announced a technology partnership called Felix to develop technologies that address the problem of integration of software and hardware virtual components at the system level. The initiative brings together the expertise and real-world experiences of systems companies, intellectual property (IP) providers and silicon vendors in order to deliver commercial solutions to the electronic design community.

The Felix initiative partners are Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. (ARM), Cambridge, England; debis Systemhaus, Nuernberg, Germany; Magneti Marelli S.p.A., Venaria Reale, Italy; Motorola Semiconductor Products sector, Tempe, Ariz.; National Semiconductor, Santa Clara,. Calif.; SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, Agrate Brianza, Italy; Symbionics Ltd., Cambridge, England; Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden; and the University of California at Berkeley.

"The new era of electronic product design mandates a dramatic shift toward a derivative-based design approach with planned re-use of large system building blocks at higher levels of abstraction. This is not a trivial issue, and one which requires the focused attention of the key players involved," says Jack Harding, president and CEO of Cadence.

The bulk of the work will be done by the companies involved and will concentrate on developing new methodologies and tools for virtual component-based design and reuse, while the university will provide guidance. Specifically, work will be done to enable design teams to optimize and shorten development cycles by confirming architectural decisions, such as hardware and software partitioning, early in the design process. The goal is to help system companies and silicon vendors realize optimization of product specifications, shorten development cycles, and capitalize on the increased capabilities offered by multimillion gate integrated circuits. Cadence's initiative is an extension of research work already completed by UC-Berkeley, Cadence Berkeley and European Labs, and Magneti Marelli. Cadence expects the first product of the Felix initiative in 1998.

Industry analysts see Cadence's Felix initiative and Mentor Graphics' recent announcement of its Co-Design Consortium (EN, November 10, 1997) as the first of many such agreements where electronic design automation (EDA) vendors will team with industry partners and academia to address specific problems, says Pete Heller, a consultant with Collett International, Inc., a Santa Clara-based EDA consulting firm.

One of the major differences between the two efforts are that Cadence's work will be done mostly by the industry partners to develop a new tool from the ground up, while Mentor's consortium is based on expanding an existing line of leadingedge tools. In the case of Mentor, the universities will do much of the work, building on Mentor's long history of cooperative research with the academic community.

Gary Smith, principal EDA analyst at Dataquest, views both initiatives as a good thing. "This is the leading edge of design right now, and we need all the help we can get," he says. Mr. Smith also applauds the utilization of academic partners being involved, since they have a lot to offer in terms of leverageable research.