Novas Transforms IC Design Debug and Exploration Process With New Verdi Behavior-Based System
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2002--Novas Software,
Inc., the leader in debug systems for complex chip designs, today
unveiled a major product breakthrough, the new Verdi(TM) debug and
design exploration system that automates the time-consuming process of
revealing the behavior of digital integrated circuits (ICs). This
development is a result of Novas' ongoing efforts to shorten
verification cycles and increase engineering productivity to help
design teams meet schedules and reduce project costs.
Verdi fundamentally transforms the debugging process for
leading-edge IC and system-on-chip (SoC) applications with new
behavior-based techniques that radically reduce the time and effort
required to comprehend how a design works or why it does not work as
expected. Verdi is based on the Company's second-generation technology
platform that delivers new technologies and methodologies for advanced
design exploration and debug, knowledge management for design sharing
and reuse, and integrated system-level design and testbench debug.(1)
"The difficulty of understanding how designs work and why they
don't continues to increase exponentially, particularly for SoCs,
where both chips and the teams that design them are large and complex,
and much of the design is unfamiliar to the design and verification
engineers. Debug carries huge opportunity costs, and the time spent
doing it is effectively wasted," said Scott Sandler, president and CEO
of Novas. "Behavior-based debug is the technology revolution needed to
minimize debug time and avoid stretching schedules in the face of
unrelenting design challenges. Verdi advances the art of design
exploration and fulfills our commitment to changing the economics of
debug for more predictable and profitable design cycles."
The Verdi behavior-based debug system is already installed at
several customer sites, including BRECIS Communications, San
Jose-based company and leading developer of Multi-Service
Processor(TM) for security appliances, routers, and multi-service
access devices. Verdi is also reflected in the product mix for major
sales engagements completed in the first quarter of this year, most
notably a multi-million dollar, multi-year purchase agreement with a
leading semiconductor company.
"We have been very satisfied with our debugging productivity
through our use of Debussy, and the new capabilities of Verdi provide
an even greater impact on reducing our debug time," said Raymond Tan,
director of engineering at BRECIS Communications. "Particularly
important to us as a growing company is the ability for logic
designers and design verification engineers who are unfamiliar with
portions of a design to be able to quickly comprehend intended
behavior, and thus locate errors faster. We also see tremendous value
in Verdi's exploration function, which gives us the ability to quickly
and accurately evaluate different design options."
Verdi's breakthrough technology will be introduced to the designer
community during Web seminars hosted by Novas in conjunction with
TechOnLine on May 13 and May 14, 2002. For more information, go to
http://seminar.techonline.com/novas/
Behavior-based Approach
Modern debug tools, including Novas' industry-leading Debussy®
knowledge-based debug system, apply highly productive automation to
the process of searching the structure of a design and correlating it
with the simulation results in a waveform display. This greatly speeds
the process of building a mental image of the design's behavior over
time. However, the process is still manual, which can be daunting for
large, complex or unfamiliar designs.
Verdi combines unique behavior-based debugging capabilities with
all of the traditional debug features of Debussy. Building on top of
the proven Design Knowledge Architecture that is at the core of
Debussy -- recently upgraded with 2x performance improvements (2) --
Verdi adds rigorous mathematical analysis, temporal visualization, and
symbolic exploration to create an entirely new debugging experience.
Novas' pragmatic, patent-pending application of synthesis and formal
verification methods enables designers to analyze cause and effect
relationships, visualize design behavior over time, and explore
alternate behaviors all within the environment of the new Verdi debug
system.
Verdi is an open, interoperable system that shares the same
application programming interfaces that have allowed Debussy to be
integrated with all popular logic simulators, formal verification and
timing analysis tools, as well as numerous other third-party
applications for a tightly integrated verification and debug flow.
"Verdi's behavior-based approach changes the way debug is
performed. It addresses complex design understanding challenges
head-on by providing unprecedented automation and access to design
knowledge throughout the design and verification process," said
Yu-Chin Hsu, vice president of research and development for Novas.
"Instead of manually correlating waveforms with source code and
schematics, users see the behavior of the design over time laid out in
our new flow graphs, and they can easily investigate alternative
behavior. The result is that Verdi cuts debug time in half yet again
compared to the best of today's current methods. We believe, and our
extensive beta efforts validate, that this is the most significant
enhancement in debugging since the introduction of waveform displays."
New Technologies
The new technologies included in the Verdi system are:
Behavior Analysis
- Automatically infers the logic functions of a design from its
register-transfer-level or gate-level description.
- Interprets simulation results to generate an internal model of
actual design behavior over time to replace the manual correlation of
signal events with logic structures that traditional debug approaches
require.
New Visualization Capabilities
- Show how control and data flow through the logic with new
register flow and statement flow graphs.
- Isolate active logic paths to reveal the root causes of specific
design behavior--expected or unexpected.
- Automatically trace signals back through time to show how an
unfamiliar design actually works.
Symbolic Design Exploration
- Performs local "what-if" analysis for instant feedback on
potential bug fixes and to dramatically reduce the number of
debug-change-re-simulate iterations.
- Explores the effects of different values and even source code
changes on design behavior through an "evaluate" operation to
propagate modified values forward and a "solve" operation to
automatically search backward by solving a logic equation for a
specified value in terms of specific inputs selected as variables.
Packaging, Pricing & Availability
Verdi is a bundled product that combines its new behavior-based
debug capabilities with the core features of the Debussy system in a
single package. It will be available for shipment in July running on
Unix and Linux platforms. The U.S. list price for an annual
subscription license that supports Verilog, VHDL, and mixed-language
designs starts at $14,000. Verilog capability will be available at
initial product shipment. VHDL and mixed-language capabilities are
planned for delivery later in 2002. Novas Debussy customers can
upgrade to the new Verdi behavior-based debug system. Pricing for
upgrade options will vary based on customer configuration.
About Novas
Novas is the pioneer of knowledge-based debug systems that reduce
the functional verification costs for complex IC designs. Building
upon the strength of its market-leading Debussy product, Novas'
second-generation Verdi system improves the efficiency of designers in
the system-on-chip era with advanced design exploration and
behavior-based debug capabilities. These allow design teams to better
understand and analyze complex or unfamiliar design behavior, and cuts
by half or more the time it takes to locate, isolate and understand
the root causes of design problems. There are more than 7,000 Novas
systems in use today at customer sites worldwide. Novas is
headquartered in San Jose, Calif. with offices in Europe, Japan and
Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit http://www.novas.com, send
email to info@novas.com, or call Novas at 408-467-7888.
Novas Software and Debussy are registered trademarks, and Verdi is
a trademark of Novas Software, Inc. All other trademarks or registered
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
(1) See March 25, 2002 press release, "Novas Software Expands Debug
Technology Platform for Complex System-on-Chip Design"
(2) See April 29, 2002 press release, "Novas Software Improves
Performance, Ease of Use of the Marketing-leading Debussy Debug
System"
Contact:
Public Relations for Novas
Wired Island, Ltd., Fremont, Calif.
Laurie Stanley, 510/656-0999
laurie@wiredislandpr.com
or
Novas Software, Inc., San Jose
Lorie Bowlby, 408/467-7871
lorie@novas.com
