Electronic Design Automation: March 1, 1996
VHDL tool kit works with VITAL systems. Compatible with all VHDL Initiative toward ASIC Libraries (VITAL)-compliant systems, a VHDL design kit lets you design across all VHDL simulators, allowing design, simulation, and the creation of test programs. The VHDL kit comes with the company's standard tool kit for ASIC designs and is part of the NRE charge. United Technologies Microelectronics Center Inc, Colorado Springs, CO. (719) 594-8000.
Software enhances MCM physical design process. Encore MCM, a physical-design and layout environment for complex multichip modules (MCMs), combines floorplanning, placement synthesis, design analysis, design verification, and integration technologies to improve and shorten the development cycle. Universal and foundry-specific design kits are available to explain the MCM design-for-manufacture process. Encore MCM runs on Sun SPARCstations and works with CAE design software from Cadence, Intergraph, Mentor, and Viewlogic. Prices start at $25,000. Harris Electronic Design Automation Inc, Fishers, NY. (716) 924-9303.
Software models complex multimedia systems. Tailored for system-level design, the Envision multimedia-design system defines, verifies, and optimizes system functionality at the behavioral level. The software provides graphical object-oriented modeling based on multimedia data types and an interactive image-analysis tool that is integrated with the simulation environment. Once multimedia designs are verified with Envision, you can use the vendor's Hardware Design System to refine the design into register-transfer-level implementations. Envision, which runs on Sun SPARC and Hewlett-Packard workstations, costs $60,000/ seat. Alta Group, Sunnyvale, CA. (408) 733-1595.
Simulation tools shorten runtime. In Release 3.3, each of these simulation tools for deep-submicron designs—PathMill, PowerMill, TimeMill, and RailMill—provides a basic parasitic reduction capability to reduce runtime and extend the capacity for full-chip simulation. PowerMill and TimeMill simulate analog elements for mixed-signal designs, and a dynamic-simulation option for PathMill provides accurate clock skews and waveforms for clock-tree analysis in µP designs. RailMill, an IC-reliability-analysis tool, extracts current behavior for reuse. All Release 3.3 tools run on Sun SPARC, Hewlett-Packard 700, and IBM RS/6000 workstations. Prices start at $60,100 (PowerMill), $44,640 (TimeMill), $36,400 (PathMill), and $133,000 (RailMill). Epic Design Technology Inc, Sunnyvale, CA. (408) 988-2997.