TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Products and services for system design

ICGen Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, OR) released ICGen, process-portable module generation software for deep sub-micron library design. Mentor Graphic's IC technology Center engineers partner with customer design teams early-on in the project to facilitate architecture and generator development. ICGen is available for $55,000 for a standalone license and $68,750 for a floating license and is available immediately. ICGen runs on Sun OS and HP-UX. Mentor Graphics Corporation , Wilsonville, OR. Contact (503) 685-7000, http://www.mentorg.com .

MetaCircuit Meta-Software (Campbell, CA) has licensed core proprietary algorithms from Bell Laboratories (Allentown, PA) which will be used along with Meta's own simulation technology in a new Switch-Level timing simulator. The new simulator, called MetaCircuit, is intended for full chip verification with speeds up to 1000x of SPICE while having accuracies within 5% of HSPICE for circuit designs in excess of one million transistors. Meta-Software, Inc. Contact: Vic Kulkarni (408) 369-5400.

RF Simulator Cadence Design Systems (San Jose, CA) introduced a new version of their Spectre analog simulation tool with added RF analysis capabilities. SpectreRF addresses the needs of applications in the rapidly growing RF for digital wireless areas. It has interfaces to both Verilog-A and VHDL-A for top-down design and analysis of analog and RF functions as well as other system level design tools. SpectreRF addresses the deficiencies of both SPICE and harmonic balance methods in highly non-linear circuits like mixers through patented algorithms and direct transforms of frequency data to time domain data. The improved accuracy and resolution permit noise floor analyses to -160dB compared to the -80 or -90 dB in the other methods. Beta sites included Ericsson and Motorola Cellular Research. Other applications that might benefit from the new tools are in switched capacitor and switching power supply circuits. Cadence Design Systems, San Jose, CA. Contact: Eric Filseth (408) 428-5614 or http://www.cadence.com .

One-pass Test Synthesis Synopsys .com/isdweb/&lf=isd-sendtolog"> Synopsys , Inc. (Mountain View, CA) introduced Test Compiler V3.4a which features "constraint-optimized scan insertion," combining scan insertion and re-optimization into one step. Test Compiler automates design-for-test with integrated testability rule checking, timing analysis, and links to synthesis. Test Compiler supports full and boundary scan methodologies. Test Compiler Plus adds partial scan and sequential ATPG. List price for Test Compiler is $50,000 and test compiler Plus is $95,000. Synopsys .com/isdweb/&lf=isd-sendtolog"> Synopsys , Inc. , Mountain View, CA. Contact (800) 388-9125, Synopsys .com>design.info@ Synopsys .com , or Synopsys .com> http://www. Synopsys .com .

Library Tool Sagantec (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), announced their DREAM (Design Rule Enforcement And Manager) tool for library generation and process rule migration. The tool takes GDS-II files as an input, coupled with an EDIF technology target design rule file and generates compacted layouts. The resulting ý libraries can be quickly ported to other processes by changing the design rule description in the EDIF file. DREAM is available now at $125,000. Technical Data Freeway, Concord, MA. Contact: Fred Hinchliffe (508) 371-9004 or info@sagantec.com .

0.35 µ FPGA AT&T Microelectronics (Allentown, PA) added two series of 0.35µ devices to its ORCA family of FPGAs, including a 3V FPGA which also supports 5V interfaces on the same device. The ATT2TxxA series of 3V FPGAs includes nine devices ranging from 4,000 up to 60,000-gate FPGAs. The ATT2CxxA is a 5-volt family of devices ranging from 4,000 to 40,000-gate devices. AT&T claims both series have architectural enhancements that will improve density and speed performance in telecommunications and data communications applications. AT&T Microelectronics, Allentown, PA. Contact AT&T Microelectronics Customer Response Center (800) 372-2447.

Embedded Software Tools Intermetrics Microsystems Software, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) announced the following tools and OS: the Precise Solution royalty-free kernel and development tools; DriveWay-302 for 68302 device driver generation; and a suite of embedded I/O communication protocols. The PassKey debugger and Precise/MQX real-time executive form the basis for the development environment. PassKey lists for $995 and the Precise Solution is available for $8,500. Intermetrics Microsystems Software, Inc. Cambridge, MA. Contact (800) 356-3594.

integrated system design  January 1996