Mentor Graphics Announces Technology Collaboration with Sharp Corporation.Business Editors, High-Tech Writers WILSONVILLE, Ore. & OSAKA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2002 Mentor Graphics Mentor Graphics, Inc (NASDAQ: MENT) is a US-based multinational corporation dealing in electronic design automation (EDA) for electrical engineering and electronics, as of 2004, ranked third in the EDA industry it helped create. Corporation (Nasdaq:MENT) today announced a technology partnership with Sharp Corporation that provides Mentor Graphics with access to "hardware compilation" technology known publicly as the Bach system Bach system: see Bach, Alexander. , for rapid design and optimization of embedded systems Embedded systems Computer systems that cannot be programmed by the user because they are preprogrammed for a specific task and are buried within the equipment they serve. . Development teams from Mentor Graphics and Sharp will work together to merge co-verification and hardware compilation technologies to create a new set of design optimization See automatic design optimization. and analysis tools for embedded system Any electronic system that uses a CPU chip, but that is not a general-purpose workstation, desktop or laptop computer. Such systems generally use microprocessors, or they may use custom-designed chips or both. and SoC designs. "This partnership advances our development of system-on-chip design and verification tools beyond the traditional capabilities of the Seamless(R) tool, our flagship co-verification product," said Serge Leef, general manager of the System-on-Chip Verification Division at Mentor Graphics. "Combining hardware compilation of portions of the design with advanced system integration and co-verification technologies will result in truly unique product offerings starting in 2003." The hardware compilation technology from Sharp allows abstract descriptions of hardware in C to be simulated and synthesized into RTL (Register Transfer Level) A high-level hardware description language (HDL) for defining digital circuits. The circuits are described as a collection of registers, Boolean equations, control logic such as "if-then-else" statements as well as complex event sequences; . This can be combined with the Mentor Graphics Seamless C-Bridge technology to enable efficient system level co-verification of designs that include both C and HDL (Hardware Description Language) A language used to describe the functions of an electronic circuit for documentation, simulation or logic synthesis (or all three). Although many proprietary HDLs have been developed, Verilog and VHDL are the major standards. representations of hardware and embedded software. This hardware compilation technology was jointly developed by Sharp Laboratories of Europe (SLE SLE systemic lupus erythematosus. SLE abbr. systemic lupus erythematosus Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) ) and Sharp Corporation. It has been used by Sharp on over 20 successful ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. and FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) A type of gate array that is programmed in the field rather than in a semiconductor fab. Containing up to hundreds of thousands of gates, there are a variety of FPGA architectures on the market. design projects, with over half a dozen successful ASIC tape outs. "It is exciting to see that our technology will be available outside of Sharp," said Dr. Kambe, deputy division general manager at Sharp's Elemental Technology Development Center, Integrated Circuits Group. "This three-way collaboration between development teams in the U.S. (at Mentor Graphics) and in Japan and the UK (at Sharp) will result in a design environment that allows designers to create complex System-on-Chip designs much more quickly and easily." "Combining Seamless and Bach will provide designers with a new approach to embedded system design," said Dr. Paul Boca, research supervisor at Sharp's research laboratory in Europe. "Starting from a description in untimed behavioral C, designers will be able to explore different hardware/software partitions using Seamless co-verification technology from Mentor Graphics and efficiently compile hardware blocks to circuits with our hardware compilation technology." About Seamless Combining the best in embedded software development tools with logic simulation, the Mentor Graphics(R) Seamless co-verification environment delivers high performance co-verification months before a hardware prototype can be built. The Seamless environment enables software and hardware development to be carried out in parallel removing the software from the critical path, and reducing the risk of hardware prototype iterations resulting from integration errors. User-controlled optimizations boost performance by isolating the logic simulator from software-intensive operations such as RTOS (1) (RealTime Operating System) An operating system designed for use in a real time computer system. See real time system, embedded system, process control and OS-9. initialization in·i·tial·ize tr.v. in·i·tial·ized, in·i·tial·iz·ing, in·i·tial·iz·es Computer Science 1. To set (a starting value of a variable). 2. To prepare (a computer or a printer) for use; boot. 3. , block memory transfers, and algorithmic routines. Seamless with C-Bridge further boosts performance through incorporation of C hardware descriptions. Seamless supports all popular logic simulators and software development environments, including the Model Technology(R) ModelSim(R) environment. About Sharp Corporation Sharp Corporation is a worldwide developer of innovative products and core technologies that play a key role in shaping the future of electronics. As a leader in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and digital technologies, Sharp offers one of the broadest and most advanced lines of consumer electronics, information products and electronic components, while also creating new network businesses. Sharp Corporation currently employs about 57,500 people in the world and recorded consolidated annual sales of over 1,803.7 billion yen for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002. For more information, please visit Sharp's web site at http://sharp-world.com/index.html. Sharp Laboratories of Europe (SLE) Ltd is situated in the Oxford Science Park The Oxford Science Park is a science and technology park located in Oxford, England. It was founded jointly by Magdalen College, Oxford and Prudential in 1989. , Oxford, United Kingdom. Established in 1990, SLE is part of Sharp Corporation's global commitment to research and development. World Wide Web site: http://www.sle.sharp.co.uk/ About Mentor Graphics Corporation 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 $600 million and employs approximately 3,700 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 San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. 95131-2314. World Wide Web site: www.mentor.com. Mentor Graphics, Model Technology, ModelSim and Seamless are registered trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners. |
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