Summit Design Welcomes ESLX and Willamette HDL as Charter Members in Newly Launched ESL and Embedded Systems Training Program.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Adding Vista(TM) to ESL Training Curricula Offers Students an Easy to Use SystemC Development and Debug Environment to Accelerate SystemC Adoption

Summit Design, Inc., a leading provider of electronic system-level (ESL) and hardware description language (HDL) design solutions, today announced the introduction of its newly created ESL and Embedded Systems Training Program aimed at simplifying and accelerating SystemC adoption. ESLX, provider of SystemC services and training; and Willamette HDL, provider of customized on-site language training and consulting services, are recognized charter members of the new program. ESLX and WHDL will incorporate Summit's Vista(TM) solution, an integrated development environment (IDE) for rapid SystemC-based analysis and debug, into their training curricula at the customers' request. Vista will be used to simplify basic training and to highlight powerful SystemC concepts and advanced debugging capabilities in advanced classes.

The newly launched Program provides training and consulting companies, worldwide, easy access to Summit's advanced SystemC, C and C++ design and verification technologies. In this first-phase offering, access to Vista affords companies the opportunity to quickly reap the benefits of ESL with SystemC. Summit designed the Program to address the needs of both novice and advanced SystemC users. Advanced users will appreciate Vista as a true SystemC IDE, because it combines the C++ language view with a hardware design view and an understanding of SystemC semantics. First-time SystemC users will enjoy easy understanding of a SystemC design because of the visibility and traceability provided by Vista introspection and tracing features, with no extra coding or intrusive instrumentation. Vista builds upon the industry standard gnu tools, making it easy for novice SystemC users to adopt.

"Historically, integrated development environments have used C++ tools that are oriented towards software development," explained Jack Donovan, president of ESLX. "With Vista, developers have a SystemC environment that is oriented towards hardware model development, integrated with the C++ view. Additionally, developers have visibility into the SystemC kernel delta cycle to help debug really complex modeling issues. The productivity that Vista offers is ideal for accelerating ESL adoption because it exposes the details of SystemC as needed in an easy to use environment."

Although other SystemC design environments require time-consuming manual code instrumentation, Vista affords designers automatic viewing of communication protocols and system-level interfaces to identify transaction function calls between blocks. Additionally, Vista's Transaction-Sequence Viewer(TM) (TSV) supports constructs critical to the hardware portion of system-level design, with minimal set-up and a short learning curve.

"The growing number of SystemC design starts confirms that it can accelerate the design process by enabling designers to work more efficiently," stated Mike Baird, President of WHDL. "Summit's provision of Vista to our training programs will help move SystemC adoption further, faster. By incorporating Vista, we can provide students, from novice to advanced, with a sophisticated viewer that will give them insight and understanding into system-level design behavior."

"The move to ESL and the proliferation of SystemC adoption will require special cooperation and collaboration between ESL tool, IP and training suppliers working in close partnership with their customers to ensure success," said Azeddine Bouchiha, director of SystemC design technologies at Summit Design. "To truly be able to address the evolving needs of customers as they move to ever higher levels of design abstraction, we need to find ways to ease adoption. Vista is easy to use, and requires minimal overhead to incorporate into both training programs and design flows. It provides an intuitive SystemC teaching environment that enables the focus to remain on the SystemC language and methodology, rather than on how to use the tools. In working closely with the talented experts at ESLX, WHDL and similar providers worldwide, Summit can leverage greater understanding of how companies are using SystemC which, in turn, will give rise to best in class ESL and embedded systems solutions."

Availability

Summit's new ESL and Embedded Systems Training Program is now open to all SystemC and ESL methodology training and consulting companies worldwide. To request details, please send email to [e-mail].

About ESLX

Founded in 2003, ESLX is a privately-held electronic system-level (ESL) training and services company headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company's offerings include ESL services and SystemC training focused upon Adoption, Methodology, Modeling, Tool Flows and Verification. These solutions enable schedule acceleration through methodology improvements and increases in team productivity. To learn more, please visit: http://www.eslx.com.

About Willamette HDL

Founded in 1993, Willamette HDL, Inc., delivers customized on-site training and consulting services that help language-based hardware design projects be more successful. Attended by more than 3,000 students, its extensive offering of Verilog, VHDL, and SystemC technology training range from language introduction courses to advanced modeling for optimal results. Willamette HDL is a privately held and self-funded company based in Beaverton, Ore. For more information about Willamette HDL, call [phone] or visit its website at http://www.whdl.com.

About Summit

Summit Design's industry-leading ESL and HDL solutions enable SOC companies to deliver products that meet system-level performance and power targets with dramatically reduced schedule risk. Summit's products address engineering challenges met during the specification and implementation design phases of complex hardware/software systems. System Architect(TM) enables massive increases in design complexity and performance by analyzing architectural tradeoffs to arrive at optimized system specifications. Vista(TM) and Visual Elite(TM) ensure swift, successful design modeling and implementation in SystemC, Verilog, and VHDL. Top electronics companies worldwide, including leaders in the wireless, automotive, and consumer electronics space, have achieved dramatic reductions in design cycle time through their use of Summit's products. Summit Design is headquartered in Burlington, Mass. with offices throughout the US, Europe, Japan, Israel, and ROA. To learn more, please visit http://www.sd.com.

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