Siroyan to Deploy Sequence's Power Theater Tools to Optimize OneDSP Cores for "Next-generation" Ultra-Low Power Designs
SANTA CLARA, Calif. & READING, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3,
2001--
Tool Suite To Help Reduce Block-Level Power Consumption by Up to
50 Percent Compared With Current IP Designs
Sequence Design Inc., the SoC design closure company, today
announced that it has completed a technology agreement to supply
Siroyan, the high-performance DSP IP company, with its
PowerTheater(TM) tools. Siroyan is one of the first companies to
deploy the latest generation of the PowerTheater tool suite. Siroyan's
designers will use the tools as a key element of the company's future
development program, focusing on ultra-lower power and power-efficient
derivatives based on its OneDSP architecture, which was announced in
October this year.
A significant factor in Siroyan's decision to adopt Sequence's
PowerTheater suite was its ability to provide the design teams with
highly accurate RTL and architectural analysis, enabling them to
address power optimization early in the design cycle -- where
significant impact on the overall power can still be derived.
"Power consumption in high-end ICs and SoC designs has been
roughly doubling every two years, and this problem is expanding as
functionality increases," said Adrian Wise, chief technology officer
at Siroyan. "The current generation of IP cores -- many of which are
based on architectures that are more than 20 years old -- were never
designed with today's requirements in mind. By addressing power usage
at an architectural and RTL stage, we can reduce the block-level power
consumption by as much as 50 percent compared with current IP designs.
And that will offer huge benefits for our customers."
Actions taken to optimize power usage earlier on -- before
synthesis takes place -- reaps significant rewards for a customer's
System-on-Chip (SoC) design. RTL design analysis and optimization are
key elements of power-efficient design. In complex ICs, typically 80
percent of the power behavior of a chip is determined before
synthesis. With performance starvation and power consumption
highlighted as the two most important concerns of today's SoC
designers, Siroyan is again focusing on the specific requirements of
the industry.
"Siroyan is an excellent example of a pioneering start-up company
that recognizes that through taking power actions early in the design
process, a significant return-on-investment can be achieved," said Vic
Kulkarni, chief operating officer, Sequence. "Sequence is the first
company to deliver power management software focused at the
architectural, RTL, and gate levels. We are confident that Siroyan's
choice of the PowerTheater tools will soon reap rewards. This
agreement demonstrates the demand for low-power solutions."
The PowerTheater suite consists of Analyst for power analysis at
the architectural level, and Designer for register transfer level
(RTL) power optimization. PowerTheater-Analyst provides the
opportunity to estimate full-chip power consumption and identify
opportunities for power reduction at the beginning of the design
process, as soon as the first RTL code is available.
PowerTheater-Designer is for use prior to logic synthesis and helps
users achieve significant power savings at the RTL level. Unlike
automatic and inflexible power optimization, Designer acts as an
advisor to the user, recommending specific RTL changes.
PowerTheater-Designer's functionality covers all major types of
circuitry, including control, datapath, I/O, memory and clocks.
Siroyan's OneDSP architecture is the first to combine scalable,
high-performance DSP with general-purpose RISC control code in a true,
single core. Delivering scalable DSP performance through the
application of unique VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) clustering
techniques, OneDSP delivers the next-generation processing power for
SoC designers working on demanding convergent communications and
consumer applications. Providing up to 32 execution-unit clusters to
be implemented by the licensee, it enables the designer to select the
performance, cost and power consumption parameters that are best
suited to each design. OneDSP is deployed in a family of synthesizable
cores, the first of which is the SRA328.
About Sequence
Sequence Design, Inc., the SoC Design Closure Company(SM), enables
system-on-chip designers to bring higher-performance and lower-power
integrated circuits quickly to tapeout. Sequence's physical design
software and solutions give its more than 100 customers the
competitive advantage they need to excel in aggressive technology
markets, despite demanding complexity and time-to-market issues of
sub-180 nanometer design.
Sequence has worldwide development and field service operations.
The company was formed through the merger of Sente, Inc., Sapphire
Design Automation, Inc. and Frequency Technology. Sequence is
privately held. Sequence is a member of Cadence Design Systems'
Connections(TM)and Mentor Graphics' Open Door(TM) partnership
programs. Additional information on the company can be found at
sequencedesign.com.
About Siroyan
Siroyan Limited's vision of becoming the industry-standard DSP IP
supplier began with the OneDSP program in 1999, following an intensive
research study. This two-year program, involving over 800 design
engineers in 150 different companies, ascertained the architecture and
IP delivery model the company needed to take technology design to the
next level of performance. The OneDSP architecture is the first to use
VLIW clustering techniques to provide unparalleled DSP power, and
integrate high-performance RISC functionality. Delivered as a family
of synthesizable cores specifically for SoC deployment, and supported
in a standard EDA development environment, Siroyan offers designers
the performance and flexibility required for demanding next-generation
applications. Headquartered in Reading, UK, the company is privately
owned, and employs some 50 technical and commercial staff at its HQ
and Design Centres. More information is available at:
www.siroyan.com.
Note to Editors: Siroyan and the Siroyan logo are trademarks of
Siroyan Limited. All other company or product names are the registered
trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.
Contact:
Sequence Design Inc.
Greg Fawcett, 408/961-2365
gfawcett@sequencedesign.com
or
Siroyan
David Close, +44 (0)118 949-7028
dclose@siroyan.com
