Sequence Power Theater Chosen by Amphion to Fashion Ultra-Low-Power IP Cores for SoC Designs
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2002--Sequence
Design today announced that Belfast, N. Ireland- and San Jose,
Calif.-based Amphion Semiconductor, a leading supplier of
application-specific cores for digital video and broadband wireless
applications, has adopted Sequence's PowerTheater(TM) design software
to deliver low-power optimized, system-level IP solutions for SoC/ASIC
and high-density FPGA.
Sequence's PowerTheater provides accurate RTL power estimation,
precise gate-level power verification, and flexible power optimization
to help integrated circuit designers minimize power early in the
design cycle and verify that power budgets are met. With the
introduction of automated IP modeling earlier this year, PowerTheater
now enables designers to create detailed power models for IP blocks.
"Every milliwatt counts in megagate core design," commented
Stephen Farson, Amphion vice-president of engineering. "PowerTheater
represents a time-efficient methodology for low-power design and
creation of power models of our special-purpose accelerator
architectures. It offers ready verification of Amphion's
performance-obsessed design techniques for creating ultra-low-power
core solutions for JPEG2000, MPEG-4 and wireless LAN."
Power Becoming Top Design Issue
"With the ever-increasing complexity of SoC design, power has now
become a major concern for leading-edge companies such as Amphion,"
said Vic Kulkarni, Sequence president and CEO. "IP blocks as diverse
as DSP cores, embedded processors, memories, and analog and mixed
signal components are routinely integrated on the same silicon.
PowerTheater's analysis capabilities and automatic generation of
high-quality IP power models now allow designers to make crucial
decisions about packaging and power distribution early in the flow,
resulting in better performance, fewer errors, and increased customer
satisfaction."
While describing power behavior and creating power models manually
is a time-consuming and error-prone process, an automated model
generation process from Sequence generates power models quickly and
efficiently for discerning customers like Amphion.
About PowerTheater
PowerTheater provides the foundation for a comprehensive SoC power
management methodology. Features include:
Accurate RTL and gate-level, full-chip power analysis covering all
major contributors to power dissipation
"Zero-Sim" capability enables RTL design for low power without the
need for a testbench or simulation
Flexible and easy-to-use RTL power reduction advisor quantifies
real power savings and tradeoffs
Automated IP power modeling process
Versatile graphical analysis environment lets designers assess
options quickly and intuitively
PowerTheater enjoys considerable momentum in the marketplace with
endorsements from users such as Amphion, Sun, and Silicon Metrics, and
is integrated into IBM's Blue Logic(TM) ASIC design system.
About Amphion
Amphion is the leading supplier of application-specific cores for
System-on-a-Chip (SoC) integrated circuit designs for multimedia, data
security, wireless and broadband communications. Amphion delivers
high-performance solutions for video and image compression, advanced
encryption, and speech and channel coding with a comprehensive range
of silicon-optimized products. Using proprietary techniques to
directly map digital signal processing functions and algorithms into
hardware, Amphion develops and licenses semiconductor
intellectual-property (SIP) cores that are close to optimal in terms
of power, cycles, and area -- computationally up to several orders of
magnitude more efficient than equivalent functions implemented on a
programmable processor. Amphion cores operate standalone, or by direct
interface to industry-standard RISC and DSP processors, and can be
easily migrated through successive generations of fabrication
technology, thus preserving engineering investments in SoC design.
Amphion is a privately held company with corporate headquarters and
engineering in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK and worldwide sales and
marketing headquarters in San Jose, California, USA. Amphion was
formerly known as Integrated Silicon Systems Ltd, or ISS. For more
information, visit www.amphion.com
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 fabrication. 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 designs.
Sequence has worldwide development and field service operations.
The company was recently named by Reed Electronics as one of the top
50 companies to watch in the electronics industry. Sequence is
privately held. Sequence is a member of Cadence Design Systems'
Connections(TM) and Mentor Graphics' Open Door(TM) partnership
programs. Additional information is available at
www.sequencedesign.com.
Note to Editors: All trademarks mentioned herein are the property
of their respective owners.
Contact:
Sequence Public Relations
Jim Lochmiller, 541/552-0616
lochpr@yahoo.com
or
Amphion
David Mann, +44 28 9050-4040
dmann@amphion.com
Source:
Sequence Design, Inc.
