Welcome to the SpringSoft Technology Newsletter. This is a monthly e-mail newsletter distributed to our customers, partners, and friends to provide information on our Novas Verification Enhancement and Laker Custom IC Design technologies. We hope the information in this newsletter will help you to use our products more effectively in your design and verification environments.
Please see the links at the end of this newsletter for subscription information or to provide feedback that will help us improve future editions.
Verification Tips:
Select Bit Signal and Display Entire Bus on nWave
The Verdi system provides the Add Full Bus command in nWave to automatically add the entire bus when a bit signal is selected. The following steps and figure demonstrates the usage of this command:
Find Signals with Regular Expression
The Verdi system supports searching signals by Regular Expression. This capability provides a flexible way for users to find signals of interest quickly. The following steps provide an example for how to use this capability.
A Unified FSDB Dumper for Cadence IUS, Synopsys VCS and Mentor Graphics ModelSim Simulators
A new breed of FSDB dumper is provided since Novas 2009.10. Different from previous FSDB dumpers, the new dumper is unified to support a broader range of simulators and versions. Currently, the new dumper can support Cadence IUS 6.2, Synopsys VCS 2006.06, Mentor Graphics ModelSim 6.4b and their later versions.
Custom IC Design Tips:
Convert the Laker system's Layout Window to a White Background
On occasions where the default black background is too dark, it is possible to change to a white background color. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Find your Laker install directory. For example: /tools/laker.
The ROI of Hardware Configuration Management
By: Srinath Anantharaman, ClioSoft, Inc.
Hardware Configuration Management Systems
Software teams have long realized the return on investment (ROI) of software configuration management (SCM) systems. SCM systems have been used by software teams for decades to manage development, improve collaboration, and coordinate releases. SCM systems have become such an integral part of a software development environment that practically no significant software project is even started without a SCM methodology in place. There are a variety of software configuration management systems to choose from - commercial systems such as ClearCase® or Perforce and public domain mainstays such as CVS and Subversion.
Technical Articles:
Functional Qualification - Components in Electronics; February 2010
By: George Bakewell, Director of Product Marketing, SpringSoft
Today's complex chips are verified using sophisticated verification environments that are often more complex than the design itself. Although advancements have been made in the areas of stimulus generation and coverage measurement, existing tools still do not provide the engineer with an overall measure of "how good" the testbench is at exposing the presence of bugs.
Debugging and Analysis with SystemVerilog Test Bench; EDN.com - February 2010
Some minor additions to OVM libraries can open a new world of visibility for design verifiers.
By Bindesh Patel and Rex Chen, SpringSoft
The verification component of SystemVerilog has dominated the rapid adoption of the language. The new verification syntax in the language allows for dramatic productivity gains in the verification cycle, which itself is now the major portion of the entire design and verification cycle. However, the debugging process of such environments brings about additional complexities.
Support:
All Worldwide Support Consolidated To One Site
No matter where you are worldwide, you can now find SpringSoft's top rated support in one place. Just go to http://www.springsoft.com/support
The most recent product releases are:
- Novas Verdi - 2010.01
- Novas Siloti - 2010.01
- Laker - 2009.12
- ADP - 2009.12
- Certitude - 2010.01
Go to www.springsoft.com/support to update your versions.
News:
SPRINGSOFT RELEASES INDUSTRY'S MOST ROBUST OA-COMPLIANT CUSTOM IC
Laker Custom Layout Automation System offers standard interoperability, robust ecosystem, and IPL support on proven foundation of unique automation
HSINCHU, Taiwan, February 22, 2010 - SpringSoft, Inc. (TAIEX: 2473), a global supplier of specialized IC design software, today announced the availability of its latest version of the LakerTM Custom Layout Automation System, which offers the industry's most complete and robust support of the OpenAccess (OA) database standard. The release builds on several years of collaboration by SpringSoft with other industry leaders to develop the infrastructure and technology required to deliver on the promise of the OA effort.
SPRINGSOFT SIMPLIFIES VERIFICATION OF LOW-POWER CHIPS WITH ADVANCED POWER-AWARE DEBUG SOLUTION
New Verdi Power-aware Debug Module enables visualization of power intent with RTL and UPF/CPF for automated debug and analysis
HSINCHU, Taiwan, February 8, 2010 - SpringSoft, Inc. (TAIEX: 2473), a global supplier of specialized IC design software, today introduced a new power-aware debug module for its award-winning VerdiTM Automated Debug System. Power-aware debug accelerates the comprehension of power intent and automates the process of visualizing, tracing and analyzing the source of power-related errors. The module is fully integrated with the hardware description language (HDL) debug capabilities of the Verdi system, the cornerstone of SpringSoft's family of NovasTM Verification Enhancement products that enable engineers to do more verification in less time.
Upcoming Events:
DVCon 2010 - Feb 22-25, 2010
See SpringSoft at DVCon at the DoubleTree Hotel, San Jose, CA
Booth #701
Go to: http://www.dvcon.org to learn more.
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We'd appreciate hearing your suggestions, comments or questions about the SpringSoft Newsletter. Please feel free to contact Karim Azar at +1 (408) 467.7860 or karim_azar@springsoft.com
Novas, Laker, Verdi, Siloti and nWave are trademarks and Debussy is a registered trademark of SpringSoft, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Copyright 2010, SpringSoft, Inc. All rights reserved.
