AMD Selects Synopsys as a Verification IP Partner

News release:

AMD Selects Synopsys as a Verification IP Partner

Expands Collaboration to Further Accelerate SoC Verification

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, today announced a multi-year agreement to provide Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) with its next-generation Discovery™ Verification IP (VIP). Based on the new VIPER architecture, the recently announced Discovery VIP family provides inherent performance, ease-of-use and extensibility to speed and simplify verification of the most complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs. This agreement covers a variety of VIP titles including USB 3.0, ARM® AMBA® AXI™ interconnect, SATA 3.0, PCI Express® Gen 3, and MIPI, as well as Synopsys' Protocol Analyzer, a unique protocol-aware SoC debug environment.
"In our verification environment for Southbridge SoCs and IP cores, we utilize several interfaces, including AXI3™ and USB 3.0. After an extensive evaluation, we selected Synopsys' next-generation Discovery VIP for several of our leading SoC designs," said Thomas Bodmer, manager of design engineering at AMD. "With Discovery VIP, we have seen benefits in minimizing our simulation runs and achieving higher coverage. We have used Synopsys' Protocol Analyzer technology to narrow down protocol violations and debug the root causes."
The growing use of increasingly complex interface protocols makes verification and debug of SoCs one of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of functional verification. VIP provides functional models that engineers use to test all SoC interfaces before manufacturing, enabling them to verify whether an interface conforms to published specification. Synopsys' Discovery VIP family offers up to four times (4X) higher performance than other commercial VIP, as well as ease-of-use, ease-of-debug, configuration, coverage and test-development capabilities to improve SoC verification productivity.
"The strategic agreement announced today expands and accelerates the successful long-standing verification collaboration between AMD and Synopsys," said Manoj Gandhi, senior vice president and general manager of the Synopsys Verification Group. "With the increasingly critical nature of VIP in SoC verification, we continue to collaborate with AMD to deliver leading VIP technology that helps manage the total cost of verification."
About Synopsys®
Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS) is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing. Synopsys' comprehensive, integrated portfolio of implementation, verification, IP, manufacturing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions helps address the key challenges designers and manufacturers face today, such as power and yield management, system-to-silicon verification and time-to-results. These technology-leading solutions help give Synopsys customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has approximately 70 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com/.

‘Superstacks’ Spreading Throughout Mobility, Enterprise and Consumer Electronics Markets, Accenture Research Finds

May 14, 2012

‘Superstacks’ Spreading Throughout Mobility, Enterprise and Consumer Electronics Markets, Accenture Research Finds

Mobility and mergers and acquisitions to be key drivers of superstack transformation

NEW YORK; May 14, 2012 – Mobility, enterprise computing and consumer electronics companies in the high-tech industry are being heavily impacted by a new business model called “superstacks,” according to new Accenture (NYSE: ACN) research. Accenture defines a superstack as a more extensive and cohesive integration of operating systems, semi­conductor chips, devices, applications and end-user services than the industry has traditionally achieved. The research also revealed that the primary driver of superstacks will be the mobility market, particularly in the smartphone arena where superstack-based products have already been made commercially available. The research also found that more mergers and acquisitions will occur as superstacks continue to coalesce in the digital ecosystem.

The research findings, based on interviews with high-tech executives globally and interactions with clients, are summarized in a new report, Competing in a High-Tech Industry “Superstack.”The research examined whether industry executives were aware of the superstack trend and its impact on their businesses, such as smartphones and tablets (mobility), data centers and the cloud (enterprise computing), and the digital home (consumer electronics).

The new report summarizes results of phone interviews with 30 executives of large high-tech companies including chief executive officers and vice presidents of strategy and business units. An overwhelming majority (83 percent) of the respondents said they have been or are being impacted by superstacks. Seventy-one percent said they have formalized their superstack strategies and set priorities such as owning critical intellectual property assets, fostering collaborative cultures across the stack, and managing strategic initiatives. Virtually all (96 percent) said superstacks bring their companies more opportunities than threats. 

“Competing in the superstack arena is a matter of survival as the high-tech industry moves full-throttle in this direction,” said Mitch Cline, managing director of Accenture’s Electronics & High-Tech business. “Some high-tech sectors are already there, such as mobile handsets, digital media services and connected TVs. Other sectors may take longer to adapt because they’re not as far along in this superstack evolution.”

When survey participants were asked which industry forces they expect would have the biggest financial impacts on the high-tech industry over the next three years, more than two-thirds (70 percent) cited mobility. Cloud computing and consumerization of IT in enterprises followed with 50 and 43 percent, respectively.

“Fueling new business models in healthcare, financial services and retail, mobility is by far the most powerful and biggest game-changer creating the need for super­stacks,” Cline added. “With mobility superstack battles now spreading to enterprise and consumer markets, the implications are profound for all high-tech players.”

When asked to speculate on a superstack strategy for the next few years, more than three-fourths (77 percent) of survey respondents said they would anticipate an increase in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. Participants were asked to give their top three reasons for pursuing such M&A transactions as part of their superstack strategies during the next two to three years. Half cited acquisition of intellectual proper­ty; the same percentage pointed to R&D to accelerate product deliveries. Forty-three percent specified gaining access to more talent, employees and expertise. More than one-third (37 percent) of respondents cited expanding product portfolios into new services.

“The superstack trend will prompt an intense burst in M&A activity and greater competition on multiple levels, especially in acquiring intellectual property and talent,” Cline added. “Winners will have tightly integrated, highly effective superstacks leveraging operating systems – the heart of superstacks – and delivering services and content to users seamlessly and securely. Superstack winners will excel at coordinating with other companies and disseminating research and development capital across superstacks.”

Research Methodology

Participants included representatives from the following industries: communications technology (5), consumer technology (8), enterprise technology (9), semiconductors (4), and software (4). The geographic breakdown of respondents was: Europe (13), North America (8), Asia Pacific (9); of these 30, six were done with emerging market players. Eighty percent of the respondents work for companies with annual revenues of US$2 billion or more. For a copy of the report, visit www.accenture.com/superstack. To access the superstack infographic, click here.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 246,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries.  Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.  The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011.  Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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Samsung Electronics Tapes out Gigahertz+ ARM Cortex-A15 Processor with Synopsys IC Compiler

Press Release:

Samsung Electronics Tapes out Gigahertz+ ARM Cortex-A15 Processor with Synopsys IC Compiler

Hardened core used in industry's first ARM® Cortex™-A15 processor-based SoC for mobile computing devices

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, today announced the successful collaboration between Synopsys and Samsung Electronics on the implementation of an ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore™ processor. The processor core was implemented by Samsung Austin Research Center (SARC) using Synopsys IC Compiler place-and-route technology, a cornerstone of the Synopsys Galaxy™ Implementation Platform. Running at operating speeds in excess of a gigahertz on Samsung's 32nm low power process, the hardened core has already been deployed in the industry's first Cortex-A15 processor-based SoC for mobile computing devices. The high speed was enabled through a unique combination of innovative optimization techniques and differentiated high-performance technologies which have made IC Compiler the tool of choice for high-performance designs across multiple process nodes.
"Our mission is to deliver the highest frequency while minimizing power for high-end processor and graphics cores targeted to the mobile computing and digital home markets," said Keith Hawkins, vice president, SARC. "Globally, this was the first production tapeout of a Cortex-A15 processor and we relied exclusively on IC Compiler and the Galaxy tool suite to predictably achieve our performance and power targets."
Samsung fabricated the three–million-instance, dual-core Cortex-A15 processor on a 32LP high-K metal gate (HKMG) process. Synopsys collaborated closely with SARC on an implementation methodology based on key high performance technologies and optimization techniques in the Galaxy Implementation Platform to meet Samsung's stringent mass production criteria for an on-time tapeout. The processor core relied on Physical Datapath in Design Compiler® Topographical and IC Compiler for the structured placement of registers to meet power and area objectives. Layout-based debug with Design Compiler Topographical allowed quick analysis of library, netlist and placement issues to close timing. Clock mesh in IC Compiler and PrimeTime® provided the low skew and increased on-chip-variation (OCV) tolerance necessary for the high-performance core.
"Samsung is a leading provider of silicon in the mobile computing market, as can be seen by its smart phone and tablet market penetration," said Antun Domic, senior vice president and general manager, Implementation Group at Synopsys. "Being at the forefront of next generation mobile products, Samsung has driven many of the technology innovations that have reinforced the position of IC Compiler as the leading choice for high-performance design. The benefits of our ongoing partnership can be seen in the impressive level of performance delivered by this gigahertz-plus processor core."
About Synopsys®
Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing. Synopsys' comprehensive, integrated portfolio of implementation, verification, IP, manufacturing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions helps address the key challenges designers and manufacturers face today, such as power and yield management, system-to-silicon verification and time-to-results. These technology-leading solutions help give Synopsys customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has approximately 70 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com/.