Cadence Selected by STMicroelectronics for Its Automotive and Digital Consumer Platforms Co-design Environments.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2001

Virtual Component Co-design Enables System-level Trade-off

Analysis for Architects and Customers

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN), the world's leading supplier of electronic design products and services, has announced that STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) has selected the Cadence(R) Virtual Component Co-design (VCC) for both its automotive and digital consumer platform system-level design methodology and design flow. STMicroelectronics (ST), one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers and a leading supplier of system-on-chip (SoC) solutions, was one of the original VCC development partners.

The STMicroelectronics Audio & Automotive division uses VCC for behavioral modeling and architectural exploration in automotive design flows. For their new power train architecture project, VCC addressed those system-level parts of the design flow that significantly influenced SoC size and complexity. This included behavioral modeling and architectural exploration to enable knowledge transfer with internal and external system customers, and design refinement and export to implementation-level co-verification.

"The VCC environment met our modeling objectives with its unique capabilities for modeling functional and architectural IP at higher levels of abstraction," said Piero Buratti, Design Methodologies Manager for the ST Audio & Automotive division, Telecommunication and Peripheral/Automotive Groups. "The new release of VCC is bringing added functionality, which will allow us to build our IP libraries and improve performance evaluation."

Utilizing VCC platform models for function and architecture as a virtual prototype lets designers explore at high levels of abstraction and at a very early stage in the design cycle.

According to Maurizio Peri, System-to-Silicon Design Director for the ST Audio & Automotive division: "We use VCC to provide our customers with world-class architectures on which they can map their project functionality. The goal is to select the best available architecture and to refine it based on performance simulation results. This approach dramatically reduces design cycle time because it eliminates the need for long re-designs due to architecture optimization after RTL simulations. In collaboration with one of our major customers, we developed a revolutionary dual-processor power train device using VCC and had excellent results."

STMicroelectronics STB bus-based Digital Consumer platforms specifically address complex SoC designs. As part of the design flow, ST utilizes the VCC environment to implement efficient exchange of platform information to its system house customers, thus allowing system-level configuration and analysis. "Bus performance, simulation speed, and analysis of an SoC design are key issues in the design flow. VCC allows us to make tradeoffs around these issues at a higher level of abstraction early in the design cycle," said Jean Marc Chateau, Design Director, Consumer and Microcontroller Groups, STMicroelectronics.

Central R&D at STMicroelectronics works with divisional design groups to provide tools and design flows. "The VCC environment is a key enabler for design chain interaction between system and semiconductor houses at the system-level," said Michele Borgatti, Non-Volatile Memories, System-level Design Manager in Central R&D. "Independent modeling of system architecture, behavior, and communication -- along with the links to implementation -- are key features in an efficient, effective design flow."

VCC (http://www.cadence.com/products/vcc.html) is the industry's first system-level development environment for hardware/software co-design and IP reuse. VCC allows designers to confirm critical architectural decisions, such as the hardware and software partitioning of system functionality, early in the design of their first-generation and derivative products. The key benefits of VCC include:

-- Dramatically increases the design productivity necessary to meet
time-to-market requirements

-- Improves design flow predictability through its system-level design
environment

-- Integrates system-level design to hardware and software implementation

About Cadence

Cadence is the largest supplier of electronic design technologies, methodology services, and design services. Cadence solutions are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronics-based products. With approximately 5,700 employees and 2000 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CDN. More information about the company, its products and services are available at www.cadence.com.

Note to Editors: Cadence and the Cadence logo are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective holders.