TransEDA Launches Industry's First IP Quality Alliance Program
IP Vendors Join with Verification Leader to Provide Customers with Objective Proof of Quality for IP Cores
LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 2002--TransEDA®
PLC, the leader in ready-to-use verification solutions for electronic
systems, announced the launch of the TransEDA IP Quality Alliance
Program, through which silicon IP vendors can provide their customers
with an independent and objective measurement of how well their IP
cores have been verified.
The program offers an online service to provide IP users with
objective and detailed evidence of the quality of an IP core's
verification. In addition, the program provides member companies with
a complimentary copy of TransEDA's VN-Property DX(TM) dynamic property
checker to facilitate development of IP properties to help their
customers speed verification of IP-based designs.
"There has already been a lot of interest in the TransEDA IP
Quality Alliance Program, and we believe it will deliver competitive
advantages to both IP providers and their customers," said Udo Muerle,
vice president of European sales at TransEDA. "Through the program our
IP vendors can differentiate themselves from other IP companies by
offering potential customers an independent assessment of how well
their IP cores have been verified. In addition, prospective IP
customers can more easily justify their investment in IP cores, and
purchase with more confidence than ever before."
Founding Members
Founding members of the TransEDA IP Quality Alliance Program
include Evatronix S.A., Fraunhofer IMS, Memec Inicore, Mentor
Graphics, sci-worx and Tality.
"Through its contributions to both the Reuse Methodology Manual
and OpenMORE, Mentor Graphics has been instrumental in defining and
using a high-quality verification process for IP cores," said Jimmy
Awan, director of engineering for the Mentor Graphics Inventra IP
Division. "We have used TransEDA's verification products for many
years to assess and improve our verification process. We welcome the
IP Quality Alliance as a way we can provide evidence of the quality of
our cores to our valued customers."
Peter Neumann, senior engineer for system-on-chip integration at
sci-worx said, "sci-worx is dedicated to providing the highest
quality, best-verified IP. We verify all of our cores to 100%
statement, 100% branch and 90% condition coverage and look forward to
providing objective evidence of this to our customers through
TransEDA's IP Quality Alliance program. In addition, we are eager to
begin working with TransEDA to provide property libraries that our
customers can use to speed the verification of systems incorporating
our cores."
The Need For Quality Assurance
The use of third-party IP cores alongside in-house generated
blocks to build system-on-chips (SoC) is commonplace, but selecting
`off-the-shelf' IP cores can be difficult since quality varies widely.
There is no way to know if a core has been fully verified. With rising
development and production costs, IP consumers need to be confident
they can integrate third-party IP with their design with minimal risk
of delay due to integration or debug issues.
According to Muerle, "TransEDA has identified a real need of IP
users for a method of objectively qualifying silicon intellectual
property. IP providers typically do not supply evidence of the
verification quality of their IP cores, and there is no recognised
criterion for measuring the quality, so consumers are left with a
difficult choice."
How the Program Works
The IP Quality Alliance Program procedure is easy to use,
automated and free of charge for members and their customers. Program
members provide the results files from TransEDA's VN-Cover(TM)
coverage analysis solution and VN-Check(TM) configurable HDL checker
to their prospective customer. After a short registration process on
the TransEDA web site, the prospective customer uploads the results
files to program's web site at www.transeda.com/ipquality.
The prospective customer can then view an objective report on the
level of coverage achieved by the IP vendor's verification process and
the IP core's conformance to specific HDL rules. This independent view
of the level of verification quality can be used as a comparison
metric between similar cores from different vendors.
In addition, members can use TransEDA's VN-Property DX(TM) dynamic
property checker to better verify their IP and to develop
core-specific properties that can be delivered along with each IP
core. This will enable IP customers using VN-Property DX to measure
the how well they have verified the core once it has been integrated
in the system.
Joining the TransEDA IP Quality Alliance Program
IP vendors who are interested in joining the TransEDA IP Quality
Alliance Program should e-mail ipquality@transeda.com for more
information.
Qualified IP vendors who join the program in 2002 will receive a
complementary, one-year subscription license to TransEDA's VN-Property
DX dynamic property checker so they can begin developing properties
specific to their IP cores that can be delivered to their customers to
accelerate verification of the core when it is integrated in the
system. Additional details and requirements for the program can be
obtained at the program's website (www.transeda.com/ipquality) or by
email to ipquality@transeda.com.
About TransEDA
TransEDA PLC (symbol TRA on the Alternative Investment Market in
London) develops and markets ready-to-use verification solutions for
electronic field-programmable gate array (FPGA), application-specific
integrated circuit (ASIC), and system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The
company's verification IP library includes models and properties for
advanced microprocessors and bus interfaces.
TransEDA's design verification software performs
application-specific test automation, configurable HDL checking,
dynamic property checking, code and finite state machine (FSM)
coverage analysis and test suite analysis. TransEDA's tier-1 list of
customers includes 18 of the world's top 20 semiconductor vendors. For
more information, visit www.transeda.com or contact TransEDA at 983
University Avenue, Building C, Los Gatos, Calif. 95032 U.S.A.,
telephone 408/335-1300, fax 408/335-1319, e-mail: info@transeda.com.
Note: TransEDA is a registered trademark of TransEDA. All other
trademarks are properties of their respective holders.
TransEDA IP Quality Alliance Program Members
Contact:
TransEDA
North America, Asia & Japan:
Tom Borgstrom, 408/335-1303
tom.borgstrom@transeda.com
or
Armstrong Kendall, Inc.
Jen Bernier, 408/975-9863
jen@akipr.com
or
In the U.K. and Europe:
Pentacom
Sharon Graves, +44 1242 525205
sharon.graves@pentacomagency.com
