Schirrmeister said version 1.0 of the VCC tools had been released to the Felix project partners and early adopters in the fourth quarter of 1998. Version 1.1, which was improved based on feedback from the partners, has been available since June of this year.

The Felix project has a strong European focus. The partners and early adopters include ARM Ltd., BMW, Debis Systemhaus, LM Ericsson, Magneti Marelli, Motorola, National Semiconductor and STMicroelectronics. Philips Semiconductors and Infineon Technologies have also been involved in Cadence's system-level efforts through a related European Union-funded project called Cosy. Hitachi is also part of the group, Schirrmeister said.

Platform-based design

Schirrmeister's paper outlined a methodology that begins well before system partitioning into hardware and software and indicates that VCC will support platform-based design. Philips Semiconductors and other companies are adopting this approach, and Cadence staffers have even authored a book on the subject, Surviving the SoC Revolution: A Guide to Platform-Based Design. The described flow also supports multiple languages representing different system views, including SDL and C/C++.

Though the paper outlines the methodology and technology requirements for specifying and analyzing the behavior and architecture of system-chips based on intellectual property cores, it does not give details of particular tools. Speaking later, Schirrmeister and Krolikoski both declined to comment on the individual tools that will make up VCC.

"Felix is a combination of tools and other things, but it will be a very strong tool announcement. But you are working in a different way, from abstract frames and tokens down to toggling wires. It means most users are requesting design services," Schirrmeister said.

Krolikoski added: "EDA tools are not the universal weapon. It's methodology, it's libraries, it's the whole thing."