Axis Systems Ships Its First Product With Breakthrough Design Verification Technology.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 12, 1998--

Desktop Solution for Debugging and Hardware/Software Verification

Targets System-on-a-Chip Designs of up to 4 Million Gates;

Xcite-1000(TM) Ships This Month, Offers Verification

Performance Breakthrough

Axis Systems, an EDA company focused on improving the verification process for system-on-a-chip designs, today announced that it is shipping its first product: Xcite-1000.

The new product is the first of a new class of design verification tools that couples ReConfigurable Computing (RCC) hardware with verification and debugging software to attack functional verification throughput.

Because of increases in design size and complexity, current simulators cannot completely address verification performance needs. Xcite-1000 offers new technology that combines software simulation and an RCC hardware engine that uses an array of high-density programmable logic integrated circuits.

This technology boosts simulation performance by orders of magnitude at a price/performance ratio unmatched by emulation and hardware acceleration solutions. Software simulators typically operate under 100 cycles per second. Xcite-1000's RCC engine speeds up simulation up to 1,000 times more than software simulation.

"Axis intends to be a leader in the high-performance design verification market," said Dr. Mike Tsai, Axis founder, President and CEO. "Xcite-1000 addresses the design productivity gap that exists today between silicon capabilities and existing verification solutions-simulation, emulation and acceleration."

About Xcite-1000

Xcite-1000 is a complete logic verification system operating at 10,000 to 100,000 cycles per second with full simulation interaction. It targets software and hardware designers who need to fully verify their design before committing to silicon. The product fits directly into current verification and design flows without modification.

Whether the design is described at the Verilog hardware description language (HDL) behavioral level, register-transfer level (RTL) or gate level, the Xcite-1000 RCC compiler transparently maps the design onto RCC computing elements and provides a tight integration to the Xcite-1000 software simulator for interactive debugging. In this way, the Xcite-1000 simulator looks, acts, and feels like a software simulator while operating at hardware speed.

Xcite-1000 targets both design and verification teams. Because of its small form factor, ease of use and advanced debugging capabilities, Xcite-1000 is well suited for the engineering desktop environment. Users can simulate and debug the design all with a local workstation. As a result, all engineers have direct access to the RCC technology to boost design productivity.

"Xcite-1000 is the first of a series of products we will be introducing," said Steven Wang, Axis founder, Vice-President of Marketing. "Axis Systems' goal is to provide a complete verification system from behavioral simulation to hardware/software co-verification for high capacity designs."

Both Altera Corporation and Sun Microsystems, Inc. helped Axis develop a patented RCC engine that offers high performance verification for the EDA market. (See Altera press release today and Sun Microsystems and Altera 5/25/98 announcements). Sun Microsystems, Inc., (Nasdaq:SUNW), Altera Corporation, (Nasdaq:ALTR).

What's Unique:

Form Factor, Desktop Solution

The Xcite-1000 RCC hardware fits easily inside a Sun(TM) Ultra(TM) 30 or Ultra 60 workstation and connects directly to its PCI backplane. The Altera components and the number of PCI boards selected determine its capacity. For Xcite-1000, each board handles designs of up to 250,000 gates using Altera's 10K250 programmable logic device. In addition, each board contains 2M bits of static RAM upgradable to 8M bits to simulate memory models. A maximum of eight Xcite-1000 RCC boards fit in a Sun Ultra 30 or Ultra 60 workstation to achieve the total capacity to 2 million gates now and 4 million gates by end of this year.

Debugging and RCC Sharing

Xcite-1000 is built for speed and it is designed for maximum debugging productivity. Xcite-1000 includes a native compile software simulator that is tightly integrated with the RCC hardware.

Xcite-1000 promotes RCC resource sharing and is designed for usage among multiple designers in the project team. When one user swaps out the simulation states from RCC into the Xcite-1000 software simulator, the RCC engine is available to other users for their simulation. This tight integration allows the designer to accelerate through lengthy simulation suites right up to a critical error or breakpoint (using the RCC engine). Then the designer can instantaneously swap the state back to the software simulator for maximum debugging control.

Xcite-1000 accelerates RTL designs. By directly compiling the user's RTL constructs onto its associated RCC computing elements, Xcite-1000 preserves simulation debugging at the RTL level.

Investment Protection and Upgrade Path

Xcite fits with an existing Verilog HDL design environments without any design modifications. It supports the IEEE 1364 Verilog HDL standard and the Verilog HDL Programmable Language Interface (PLI). Xcite-1000 can be installed at the user site in less than one hour with user designs simulating in RCC in less than one day.

According to Steven Wang, Axis co-founder and Vice-President of marketing, "To protect our customers investment, we planned for Xcite-1000's performance and capacity to improve along with technology. When Altera ships higher capacity parts, we will offer upgrades to our customers; when Sun's workstation performance improves, so will Xcite-1000's."

Price and Availability

Xcite-1000 for designs of up to 2 million gates is shipping now. Product capacity up to 4 million-gate is available in December. Pricing for Xcite-1000 with 1 million-gate capacity with a software simulator and RCC compiler is $295,000 (USD); an upgrade to 2 million gates adds $95,000 (USD). Additional software licenses for design teams are $45,000 (USD) each. Xcite-1000 runs on Sun Microsystems Ultra 30 and Ultra 60 workstations and has close integration with popular front end interfaces.

Xcite-1000 and RCC

Xcite-1000's RCC engine is based on a massively parallel architecture for which compute intensive tasks are mapped onto hundred of thousands of reconfigurable computing elements.

Reconfigurable elements are custom processors designed for one single task. Communication between processing elements is done with a systolic array structure which allows data transfer between nearest neighbors.

Computational efficiency derives from the ability to custom build and use the best RCC element for a particular function. Axis has filed for more than six patents on its RCC technology.

About Axis

Axis Systems, Inc. is the technology leader of logic design verification for the EDA industry. Founded in December 1996, the company provides breakthrough technologies and high-speed products to verify electronic systems and systems-on-a-chip. More information on Axis Systems can be obtained on the worldwide web at http://www.axiscorp.com.

Acronyms:

EDA: Electronic Design Automation HDL: Hardware Description Language IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers IEEE 1364: Verilog HDL standard PLI: Programming Language Interface RCC: ReConfigurable Computing RTL: Register-Transfer Level or RT level

Contact for reader service inquiries:

Axis Systems, Inc., 209 Java Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089, 408/588-2000, FAX: [phone], [e-mail] http://www.axiscorp.com Attn.: Steve Wang

EDA analysts who have briefed on this announcement:

Ron Collett, Collett International, 408/562-5750, [e-mail] Gary Smith, Dataquest, 408/468-8271, [e-mail] Rita Glover, EDA Today, 602/443-9209, [e-mail]

Quotes: Mike Tsai 408/588-2000 ext. 108, Steve Wang ext. 111

Notes to Editors: Photos and Powerpoint graphics available on request. Xcite-1000 is a trademark of Axis Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their owners.