CoWare's new N2C System Designer lets you integrate hardware and software blocks at the architectural level and cosimulate software modules and HDL-based hardware without translating the hardware description to C or SystemC. The company has also added software-development-analysis tools, including task-level Gantt charts and task-level CPU-load and memory- and cache-analysis tools.

System Designer also functions as the simulation base for the company's new N2C Advanced System Designer. The advanced version adds complex-bus-analysis interface-synthesis tools to N2C System Designer. System architects can use the product to explore the bus architecture that gives the best trade-off of high performance and low power using modeling and analysis tools. The interface-synthesis tool synthesizes the interconnection matrices and crossbar switches of multilayer buses, including ARM's AMBA and STMicroelectronics' STBus. A three-year license of N2C Advanced System Designer costs $180,000.

CoWare, 1-408-436-4720, www.coware.com.