Adaptive Silicon Announces Next-Generation Software for the MSA 2500 Programmable Logic Core.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)

Oct. 15, 2001 -

Enhanced Software and New Tools from Synplicity and

Atrenta Add Significant Functionality to

ASi's Embedded Programmable Logic Core(TM) Offering

Adaptive Silicon (ASi) today announced its next-generation Millennium PLC Software.

The expanded suite of software applications includes significant new functionality and improved ease-of-use for application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and application-specific standard product (ASSP) system-on-chip (SoC) designers using the MSA 2500 Programmable Logic Core (PLC(TM)). The new product includes new software applications for RTL checking and RTL synthesis, as well as new IP libraries for optimal mapping of complex functions into the MSA 2500 PLC.

ASi's Millennium PLC Software, introduced last March with the industry's first embedded programmable logic core, is made up of a powerful, easy-to-use suite of tools that enables RTL designs to be optimized for PLC implementations integrated within SoC designs.

Synplicity and Atrenta Tools Improve Density and Performance

Following on the strategic agreement between ASi and Synplicity, announced in March 2001, the next-generation Millennium PLC Software will include a customized version of Synplicity's Synplify(R) synthesis software. Synplicity and ASi customized the Synplify product specifically for the MSA 2500 PLC architecture, and early benchmarks show density and performance improvements as high as 30 percent over non-optimized synthesis methodologies. With its new, built-in MSA 2500 PLC architectural knowledge, Synplify optimizes the logic to best meet the area and performance requirements of SoC designers using the MSA 2500 PLC. The Synplify software will come standard as part of the next-generation Millennium PLC Software package.

ASi and Atrenta, formerly Interra, developed a set of rules or "rule deck" for Atrenta's SpyGlass(TM) RTL rule checker. SpyGlass PLC(TM) will be integrated into the Millennium PLC Software flow to validate the design's suitability for synthesis and mapping into the Programmable Logic Core. Spyglass and the rule deck will come standard as part of the next-generation Millennium PLC Software package.

"In addition to having an optimal programmable logic architecture for embedded cores, it is very important to offer best-in-class software to maximize the quality of the results," commented Charle' Rupp, CTO of Adaptive Silicon. "Providing the complementary tools from Synplicity and Atrenta, with their built-in knowledge of the MSA 2500 PLC architecture, will help our licensees achieve their design objectives faster and easier."

New Tool Flow Manager and GUI Make Mapping Designs to

PLCs Easy and Predictable

Along with the third-party tools from Synplicity and Atrenta, a new graphical user interface (GUI) will improve the usability of the entire Millennium PLC Software suite. The GUI's flow manager guides the designer through all the applications needed to take an RTL design and implement it within a PLC embedded in a SoC. The flow manager can be set up for use with the tools in three primary usage modes: architectural planning to size the PLC and set timing budgets, detailed design and mapping to implement a logic design into the PLC, and post-silicon updates of the design with assurance that timing constraints are fully considered. Underlying scripts allow the tools to be used interactively or to be run automatically without user intervention. The new GUI will enable frequent and infrequent users alike to quickly map designs into the PLC.

New IP Library and Implementation Generators Optimize Results

In addition to enhancing each of the basic Millennium PLC applications, including mapping, place, route, netlist generation, delay modeling, and placement editing within the Millennium PLC Software suite, an IP library of functions with corresponding implementation "generators" is included as part of the ASi mapping software (plcMap). These IP elements, and the corresponding implementation generators, are utilized whenever the corresponding logic blocks are inferred by the Synplicity Synplify synthesis tool, or otherwise instantiated in the design in the source RTL for other supported synthesis tools. The IP library and generators leverage the MSA 2500 ALU-based architecture and utilize microprogramming to maximize mapping efficiency. Among the 30+ IP functions added in this new release of the Millennium PLC Software are the following: adders, subtractors, comparators, incrementers, decrementers, multipliers, encoders, decoders, shift registers, counters, multiplier-accumulators, pipelined multipliers, dynamic up/down counters, and tree multipliers. The subscription license for the IP library is included in the annual Millennium PLC Software license.

Product Availablility

Millennium PLC Software Release 1.1 is in beta testing and will be released for production before the end of CY2001.

Advantages of Embedded Programmable Logic

Embedded programmable logic permits high-risk blocks of a SoC device to be modified after first silicon is produced. Multiple devices can be shipped from a single platform-based die by programming different functions into embedded programmable logic and avoiding different mask sets for each discrete product and the months of related engineering and silicon prototyping time. Where there are blocks of known high design risk, such as those impacted by evolving standards, such devices may be fabricated earlier in the development process without risking modification to the overall design or re-spinning the silicon. Embedding programmable logic also provides the flexibility to modify devices once they are shipped to customers. As a result, algorithms can be upgraded and changes in standards or protocols can be accommodated in applications like communications and image processing.

About Adaptive Silicon, Inc.

Adaptive Silicon, Inc. (ASi) is a privately financed silicon intellectual property (IP) company. ASi licenses a Programmable Logic Core(TM) (PLC(TM)) that semiconductor and systems companies embed into large system chip ASSPs and ASICs. The company announced the MSA 2500 Programmable Logic Core, the industry's first programmable logic IP for large system chips, and the complementary Millennium PLC Software product in the spring of 2001. ASi received its seed funding in July 1999. In December 2000, ASi closed an additional $8.3 million. The MSA 2500 Programmable Logic Core supported by the Millennium PLC Software is qualified on LSI Logic's G12, 0.18u process and TSMC's 0.18u process. ASi is headquartered in Los Gatos, California, and may be reached at 408/335-2700, or via the world wide web at [e-mail] or www.adaptivesilicon.com.

Millennium PLC, MSA 2500 Programmable Logic Core, Programmable Logic Core and PLC are trademarks of Adaptive Silicon, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.