Product category: Design and Development Software
News Release from: Mentor Graphics UK | Subject: Catapult Synthesis
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 04 August 2006
Synthesis tool cuts C-based design
effort in half
Fujitsu Microelectronics Solutions uses the Catapult Synthesis tool for use in wireless signal processing applications.
Fujitsu Microelectronics Solutions (FMSL) has selected the Catapult Synthesis tool for use in wireless signal processing applications After comparing multiple high-level synthesis tools, FMSL reports that the Catapult Synthesis tool's ANSI C++ methodology creates higher quality designs in less time than SystemC-based synthesis methodologies
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 21 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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"There are many EDA tools available for high-level synthesis, but we have found that those that offer methodologies based on pure ANSI C++ provide the most advantages".
"Catapult Synthesis starts at pure ANSI C++, the highest level of abstraction, to provide an immediate productivity advantage over both RTL and SystemC-based hardware design methodologies".
"Catapult gives us total control as we refine our high-level models, allowing us to explore a variety of micro architectures and to arrive at an optimal, high-quality implementation quickly", said Masaoki Satoh, Advanced Technology and SoC Design Department, FMSL.
According to FMSL, the company decided to adopt the Catapult Synthesis product based on three criteria: design methodology, quality and design cycle time.
Only Catapult Synthesis delivered high-quality implementations that rivaled hand-coded designs in terms of area and power consumption.
The Catapult Synthesis tool also enabled FMSL designers to examine several different architectural scenarios, find an optimal one, and then automatically generate RTL.
By incorporating Catapult as a part of their existing C based design flow, they were able to shorten development time to 50% with half the number of engineers, compared with a conventional RTL design methodology.
"Other synthesis tools required users to be familiar with less-established, more highly specialised languages, but such learning curve is not necessary with Catapult Synthesis tool and its pure ANSI C++ synthesis methodology", said Takeshi Toyoyama, Group Leader, Advanced Technology and SoC Design Department, FMSL.
"Innovative companies, such as FMSL, rely on advanced proven technology in order to help meet business goals", said Simon Bloch, General Manager, Mentor Graphics Design Creation and Synthesis Division.
"We believe Catapult Synthesis will help FMSL achieve the highest quality and performance for their next-generation devices, while helping them reduce design time and overall time to market".
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