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Industry-leading Debug Solutions Debussy and Verdi to Support Emerging Standard for Next-Generation Design LanguageStandard Property Specification Language Promises to Enhance Efficiency, Viability of Advanced Verification Techniques
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 27, 2003 — Novas Software, Inc., the leader in debug systems for complex chip designs, today announced that its debug systems will support the property specification language PSL for assertion-based verification. Novas’ products will leverage assertions and other design specifications expressed in PSL to help designers more thoroughly understand design behavior and quickly locate, isolate and analyze the root causes of problems when designs do not work as intended.
The emerging PSL 1.0 format being developed by the Accellera standards group gives engineers a standard means of specifying design properties using a concise syntax with clearly-defined formal semantics. Among other benefits, it allows them to more easily and effectively use formal methods to verify complex integrated circuit (IC) designs. Novas’ Debussy® and VerdiTM Behavior-Based Debug Systems will support the PSL 1.0 specification by the end of 2003, and provide interoperability with third-party tools that adopt PSL, including the Incisive® verification platform from Cadence Design Systems.
“PSL is a very rich specification language that enhances formal verification as well as simulation-based verification methodologies,” said Scott Sandler, president and CEO of Novas. “Our goal is to support in our debug systems all standard formats that designers need to improve the efficiency of the verification process. We are excited by the opportunity to improve debug productivity with assertion-driven capabilities and pleased to be working with Cadence toward interoperability for PSL that combines simulation and a robust debug solution.”
“Novas is a recognized leader in debug systems, and Cadence is pleased they are adopting PSL,” said Rahul Razdan, corporate vice president, Functional Verification group at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. “Extending the integration of Novas tools with the strong assertion capability in Incisive can dramatically enhance debug productivity for our mutual customers.”
Formally Supporting PSL
The expressiveness of PSL allows designers to easily describe expected or unexpected design behavior through properties. Novas’ Debussy and Verdi will work closely with simulators and formal tools that use PSL to verify design descriptions. The debug systems will allow engineers to import the results produced by these tools, and use Novas’ integrated tracing and visualization capabilities to view property results and PSL source code and track down the causes of design bugs. This approach further automates the process of understanding design behavior, and compounds the benefits of using new assertion technologies to shorten verification cycles.
“The goal with Accellera’s PSL efforts is to provide an efficient language for the formal specification of hardware, as well as a means to rigorously document the design specification. Obviously, the format itself is only as useful as the tools that support it, and debug is a critical aspect of reducing the time spent in verification,” said Harry Foster, chair of the Accellera Formal Verification Technical Committee. “We’re pleased at the level of commitment by industry leaders like Novas and Cadence to helping designers leverage PSL as an effective technique for verifying complex chip designs.”
About Novas
Novas is the pioneer of debug systems that reduce the functional verification costs for complex IC designs. Building upon the strength of its market-leading Debussy® Debug System, Novas’ VerdiTM Behavior-Based Debug System further 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 cut by half or more the time it takes to locate, isolate and understand the root causes of design problems. Highlighted as one of the “Top 100 Products” for 2002 by EDN Magazine, Verdi also holds the honor as finalist for the EDN 2002 Innovation Award. There are more than 10,000 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
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