SynTest's TurboFault Simulator Links To Novas Debussy Debug System

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 2002--SynTest Technologies, Inc., the leading supplier of DFT (Design For Test) tools and services for SOC (System-On-Chip) design today announced that its TurboFault(TM) fault simulator, the fastest concurrent fault simulator based on the latest advances in cycle-based simulation technology, now has a link to the market-leading Debussy® Knowledge-based Debug System from Novas Software, Inc.

The TurboFault to Debussy link reduces simulation time and enhances the productivity of chip designers for debug of SOC designs.

"We are pleased to see the integration of a popular and high-performance tool such as TurboFault with our debug system," said George Bakewell, director of technical marketing for Novas. "We believe our approach of having an accessible knowledge-based architecture that uses open APIs and a common data model is the most efficient way for designers to use the tools they want and to maintain a useful connection between them. The result is faster overall design cycles and a more productive verification flow."

"We joined the Novas Harmony partner program last year with the goal of making the debugging and DFT tasks easier for our customers," said Finney Tsai, Vice President, R&D, SynTest Technologies. "The openness of the Novas architecture was key to linking our fault simulator to Debussy, the industry's leading debug system."

Benefits -- Reduced Simulation Time, Increased Productivity

SynTest's TurboFault fault simulator interfaces directly with the Debussy Fast Signal Database (FSDB) through Novas' open and extensible architecture. Debussy uses the FSDB to store results from TurboFault. With the TurboFault to Debussy link, designers can directly read-in their existing Debussy waveform database as test patterns to run fault simulation with TurboFault. This saves simulation time because designers do not have to run an extra Verilog simulation to create test patterns for TurboFault. With output waveform data available in the FSDB format, it is also easier for Debussy users to debug and verify TurboFault simulation results within the context of schematic and waveform views. This improves SOC designer productivity during design debug.

More about Debussy

Novas' Debussy provides an efficient and user-friendly environment that reduces the time it takes to find the causes of design problems and to figure out how complex designs work. The system offers a variety of tools for visualizing and analyzing designs at different levels of abstraction. Users consistently report that the Debussy system cuts their debug time in half. Debussy supports standard chip design and functional verification flows through industry alliances with more than 25 leading providers of commercial simulators, formal verification software, and hardware emulators.

More about TurboFault

SynTest's TurboFault uses the latest advances in cycle-based simulation technology, and can simulate even faster than hardware-accelerated fault simulators. TurboFault makes fault simulation an integral design tool for generating a quality manufacturing test set. It supports single timing delay for simulation accuracy and flexibility, without sacrificing speed. TurboFault is also used as a simple diagnostic tool. Its fault-tracing feature allows users to compare the circuit activities between faulty and normal chips. This speeds up tuning test vectors; isolating faulty circuits and debugging failed parts. Waveform data is output in ASCII, VCD or Novas' FSDB format.

SynTest's TurboFault Price and Availability

TurboFault with the Debussy link is available now from SynTest for Sun Solaris, HP-UX and Linux operating on PCs networked over a UNIX server. The price begins at $100,000.00 (USD) for a 3-year license.

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 Knowledge-Based Debug System, Novas' second-generation Verdi(TM) Behavior-Based Debug System improves the efficiency of designers in the system-on-chip era with advanced design exploration and 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 www.novas.com or send email to info@novas.com.

About SynTest

SynTest Technologies, Inc., develops and markets advanced Design-for-Test (DFT) and Design-for-Debug/Diagnosis (DFD) tools, throughout the world to semiconductor companies, ASIC designers and test groups. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, the company has offices in Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The Company's products improve an electronic design's testability and fault coverage and result in reduced defect levels, reduced costly tester time, and reduced slippage in time-to-market. These products include tools for Built-in Self-Test (BIST) for logic and memory; boundary-scan synthesis; DFT testability analysis, scan synthesis, ATPG, concurrent fault simulation, silicon debug and diagnosis. More information is available at www.syntest.com.

SynTest Technologies Inc. is headquartered at 505 South Pastoria Ave., Suite 101, Sunnyvale, California 94086, Phone: 408-720-9956, E-Mail: info@syntest.com

Note to Editors: TurboFault is a trademark of SynTest Technologies, Inc. Debussy is a registered trademark and Verdi is a trademark of Novas Software, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Acronyms

API: Application Programming Interface
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIC: Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
ATPG: Automatic Test Pattern Generation
BIST: Built-in Self-Test
DFT: Design-for Test
DFD: Design for Debug / Diagnosis
FSDB: Fast Signal Database
SOC: System-on-Chip
VCD: Value Change Dump

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