New Books Showcase EDA and IC Design Methodologies; Authoritative Reference on EDA Design for Integrated Circuits Includes Contributions From Tensilica Employees.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The new "Electronic Design Automation Circuits Handbook," edited by Grant Martin, Tensilica's chief scientist, Louis Scheffer of Cadence Design Systems and Luciano Lavagno of Cadence Berkeley Laboratories, is a 2-book reference that provides a comprehensive overview of the design automation algorithms, tools, and methodologies used to design integrated circuits. Several of the chapters in this authoritative work were contributed by experts at Tensilica. Published by Taylor & Francis, the 2-volume set is available from booksellers now. The MSRP is $149.95.

Volume 1, "EDA for IC System Design, Verification, and Testing," provides an overview of IC design and EDA, explaining system-level design, micro-architectural design, verification tools, and test methods. Volume 2, "EDA for IC Implementation, Circuit Design, and Process Technology," covers the classical RTL to GDS II design flow, including the synthesis, place, and route process in detail.

Steve Leibson, Tensilica's technology evangelist and former editor-in-chief of EDN and Microprocessor Report, contributed "Using Performance Metrics to Select Microprocessor Cores for IC Designs." This chapter discusses the many performance factors that must be considered when selecting processor cores for SOC designs and the benchmark programs that can be used to compare the performance of processor cores. The chapter includes a comprehensive history of computer benchmarking that stretches back to the invention of the modern electronic computer.

Sumit Gupta, product marketing manager at Tensilica, co-wrote the chapter "Parallelizing High-Level Synthesis: A Code Transformational Approach to High-Level Synthesis," with Rajesh Gupta of University of California, San Diego, and Gaurav Singh and Sandeep Shukla of Virginia Tech. This chapter focuses on recent progress in coordinated compiler and high-level synthesis transformations that can yield efficient circuits. It also describes recent developments in system-level modeling techniques and languages that attempt to raise the level of abstraction in the design process.

The book is available now on Taylor & Francis CRC Press (http://www.crcpress.com) and at Amazon.com and other major booksellers.

About Tensilica

Tensilica offers the broadest line of controller, CPU and specialty DSP processors on the market today, in both an off-the-shelf format via the Diamond Standard Series cores and with full designer configurability with the Xtensa processor family. Tensilica's low-power, benchmark proven processors have been designed into high-volume products at industry leaders in the digital consumer, networking and telecommunications markets. All Tensilica processor cores are complete with a matching software development tool environment, portfolio of system simulation models, and hardware implementation tool support. For more information on Tensilica's patented approach to the creation of application-specific building blocks for SOC design, visit www.tensilica.com.

Editors' Notes:

--Tensilica and Xtensa are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

--Tensilica's announced licensees include ALPS, AMCC (JNI Corporation), Aquantia, Astute Networks, Atheros, ATI, Avago Technologies, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Cypress, Crimson Microsystems, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, Ikanos Communications, LG Electronics, Lucid Information Technology, Marvell, MediaWorks, NEC Laboratories America, NEC Corporation, NetEffect, Neterion, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), NVIDIA, Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., sci-worx, Seiko Epson, Solid State Systems, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Stretch, TranSwitch Corporation, u-Nav Microelectronics and Victor Company of Japan (JVC).