Cadence Incisive Palladium System Cuts NVIDIA's Verification Time in Half; Palladium Accelerator/Emulator Speeds Verification of NVIDIA's Newest Graphics Processor
SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Aug. 17, 2004—
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN)(Nasdaq:CDN)
today announced that NVIDIA, using the Cadence(R) Incisive(TM)
Palladium(R) acceleration/emulation system, significantly reduced its
verification time for NVIDIA's new GeForce 6800 graphics processor,
its most complex, highest-performance chip to date. NVIDIA reports
that the verification time savings enabled by the Palladium system
allowed it to meet the market window for its new product with
increased confidence in hardware performance and software quality.
The high performance Palladium system provides scalable capacity,
multi-user capability, superior debug and very fast compile time,
resulting in comprehensive application-level software testing. While
one design team uses the Palladium system to develop software drivers,
another group can simultaneously make use of the system for full-chip
verification. In addition, with the Palladium system's optional remote
access capability, integrated circuit design teams can provide their
own customers with access to design for evaluation, design-in, and
software development long before silicon is ready.
"Palladium greatly increases our overall productivity and
confidence in the quality of our hardware and software," said Brian
Kelleher, vice president of hardware engineering, NVIDIA. "Previously,
our verification process would take about two to three days per turn
-- the cycle for bug detection, identification and the repair process.
Now, with Palladium, we average two to three turns per day, enabling
us to meet time-to-market requirements that are essential to
maintaining a strong leadership position in the graphics market."
NVIDIA's new GeForce 6800 offers one of the industry's leading 3-D
performances with highly complex architecture coupled with
multi-million-gate processing and memory chips. Using the Palladium
accelerator/emulator, a key technology of the Incisive functional
verification platform, the NVIDIA team leveraged the system's
multi-user capability which NVIDIA reports enabled them to maximize
efficiency and productivity. NVIDIA also utilized the Video
SpeedBridge product from the Cadence SpeedBridge(TM) vertical
application solutions to quickly create complete emulation
environments.
"Our relationship with NVIDIA represents a truly win-win
situation. Through the use of the powerful Cadence Palladium system
core engine and vertical solutions, NVIDIA told us that it was able to
shave months off its verification cycle," said Christopher Tice,
senior vice president and general manager, verification acceleration,
Cadence. "In the same respect, NVIDIA's direct feedback, clear
requirements and chip complexity drove Cadence to improve the
productivity of the Incisive Palladium system, raising the bar for our
competitors."
About Cadence
Cadence is the largest supplier of electronic design technologies
and engineering services used to accelerate and manage the design of
semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications
equipment, consumer electronics, and other electronics-based products.
With approximately 4,850 employees and 2003 revenues of approximately
$1.1 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research
facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose,
Calif., and is listed for trading on both the New York Stock Exchange
and Nasdaq under the symbol CDN. More information is available at
www.cadence.com.
Cadence, the Cadence logo, and Palladium are registered
trademarks, and Incisive and SpeedBridge are trademarks of Cadence
Design Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other marks
are properties of their respective holders.
Contact:
The Hoffman Agency
Karin Gilles, 408-975-3038
kgilles@hoffman.com
