WILSONVILLE, Ore.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—April 25, 2006—
Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq:MENT) today
announced its 0-In(R) Clock-Domain Crossing (CDC) technology was used
in the design of Sun Microsystems' breakthrough UltraSPARC(R) T1(TM)
processor, which Sun recently announced. The UltraSPARC T1 processor
with patented CoolThreads technology is an eight-core 64-bit,
32-thread processor design which includes open-source hardware and
software specifications.
Mentor Graphics(R) 0-In CDC technology was critical to Sun's
overall verification methodology. The processor design maximizes
performance and lowers power consumption through an innovative
multi-clock architecture in which relatively slow cores share an
onboard memory controller and I/O subsystem through a high speed
crossbar switch. The result is high throughput with low memory latency
and low power. Sun selected the 0-In CDC technology because of its
unique ability to thoroughly check ratioed synchronous clocks and
lock-up latches as well as asynchronous clocks.
Sun looked at a variety of options to address metastability and
other CDC-related issues and decided to use formal verification
techniques. After evaluating available technologies, they selected the
Mentor Graphics 0-In CDC solution. Close collaboration between Mentor
and Sun ensured that the design was free of CDC problems and reached
verification closure on schedule.
"We had two or three months to formally verify the crossings,"
stated Eugena Talvola, senior verification engineer for the Formal
Technologies Group at Sun. "Adding to the pressure was the fact that
CDC verification was a new area for us. We needed certain features
that nobody had. The 0-In CDC product implemented checking for ratioed
synchronous clocks and lock-up latches for us. The Mentor team worked
with our R&D staff to implement it on a fairly short notice, in time
to check the chip."
The UltraSPARC T1 processor had a few hundred ratioed synchronous
clocks -- synchronous clocks with different frequencies. Ratioed
synchronous clocks allow the cores to be much more portable because
the memory controller and the I/O subsystem can be quickly modified to
meet new requirements or standards without changing the core.
The 0-In CDC tool checked lock-up latches used for production
testing. Lock-up latches were inserted to delay certain branches of
the clock tree by half a cycle. Clock domains can be defined by the
user, so clock A and clock B may be branches of the same clock tree if
necessary. This is usually used to make sure that a scan chain does
not pass through more than one bit per shift cycle due to clock skew.
Because the 0-In CDC tool could detect where the clock domain
crossings were, it was able to check whether the lock-up latches were
in place.
"Sun and Mentor's 0-In team have had a solid working relationship
and we are proud of being a vital contributor to the UltraSPARC T1
processor," said Steve White, general manager of Mentor Graphics 0-In
functional verification business unit. "We foresee further
collaborations with Sun and its OpenSPARC initiative as they continue
to deliver innovative open-source multi-threading technologies to the
industry."
About Mentor Graphics
Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq:MENT) is a world leader in
electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products,
consulting services and award-winning support for the world's most
successful electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in
1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of about
$700 million and employs approximately 4,000 people worldwide.
Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road,
Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777; Silicon Valley headquarters are
located at 1001 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, California 95131-2314.
World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.
Mentor Graphics and 0-In are registered trademarks of Mentor
Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the
registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.
Contact:
Mentor Graphics
Larry Toda, 503-685-1664
Email Contact
or
Ry Schwark, 503-685-1660
Email Contact
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