Tool lets you co-design hardware, software

-- EDN, 1/4/2001

Version 2.0 of Cadence Design's VCC (Virtual Component Co-design) environment for platform-based design delivers new modeling features for performing rapid evaluations of implementation alternatives for new and derivative products early in the design cycle. These features support better and more efficient coordination between SOC (system-on-chip) providers and system integrators. In addition, Cadence more tightly integrated the VCC environment with co-verification and implementation flows.

System designers working in the VCC 2.0 environment can evaluate the partitioning of functions by performing "what-if" analyses at the functional-block level and exploring the impact of various architectural decisions on the throughput of the interfaces between blocks. Designers can also model various implementations of a block in hardware or software, leading to a more timely choice of the most desirable strategy. The analysis occurs before the development of any RTL or software code. This technique saves development time and results in more intelligent choices of the various system components, including IP (intellectual-property) reuse.

VCC 2.0 introduces a new level of interaction into the relationship between SOC providers and system integrators by elevating the decision-making about functional and architectural alternatives to the system level. For SOC developers, VCC 2.0 provides an open infrastructure to model highlights of their virtual-component IP through a set of "architecture services." It provides a comprehensive library of more than 40 such service devices from asynchronous delays to time-sliced buses and allows the modeling of custom architectural services. Cadence based the open infrastructure on the IEEE 1499 Open Model Interface, allowing both SOC providers and system designers to develop their own portable and reusable models. System integrators use the VCC environment to more efficiently articulate their product needs and to assess the integration aspects of components at the system level early in the design cycle.

VCC 2.0 adds tighter links to the implementation tool and creates the top-level shell of custom hardware blocks, which share several functions. Joined bus interfaces and communication between the blocks automatically speed the design process from system level to implementation. The VCC environment provides software- and hardware-virtual-component vendors with a method of promoting and distributing critical information to ensure successful design and integration of IP blocks for platform-based designs. VCC is available on Solaris and Window NT operating systems. Prices start at $52,800 for a one-year license. Special packages for system integrators (VCC Evaluator) and SOC providers (VCC Architect) are available.

Cadence Design, www.cadence.com.

-by Gabe Moretti