NEC's Software Verification System Cuts Mobile LSI Development Costs
NEC Corporation and NEC Electronics Corporation today announced that they have succeeded in increasing efficiency of the development of software that operates complicated system LSI used in digital appliances and mobile phones through the development of a software verification system that substantially reduces development cost and time of system LSI.
The main characteristics of this verification system consisting of a high-speed simulator, which simulates LSI hardware operation aimed at development of system LSI software, are as follows:
(1) The world’s first realization of a flexible interface based on simultaneous mechanism through which communication between the PC simulator and a rewriteable logic device (FPGA: Field Programmable Logic Array) occur.
(2) Realization of a low-cost PC simulator and a high-speed FPGA emulator through use of this flexible interface based on simultaneous mechanism.
(3) The newly developed PC simulator is up to 1000 times faster than a conventional PC simulator, and the FPGA emulator cost is reduced by 1/100.
(4) It can already be applied to development of LSI for digital television, and has succeeded in system LSI software development for system LSI before fabrication.
Recently, system LSI are becoming more and more diversified along with the expansion of the digital appliance and mobile phone markets. In system LSI development, the development of the embedded software along with the hardware is of great importance. Conventional methods involve development of the embedded software after chip fabrication which can lead to a slow and costly development process as the PC simulator is too slow, and the FPGA emulator is too expensive. For embedded software development at an early stage a fast and accurate system simulator is required. NEC’s newly developed software verification system combines a PC simulator and an FPGA emulator to achieve easy debugging, rich portability, and high verification speed, at a low cost. Full synchronization is necessary for maintaining verification accuracy. This verification system enables development of the hardware and embedded software simultaneously, which drastically reduces
system LSI development time.
“NEC and NEC Electronics believe that the early development of system LSI software will greatly contribute to increasing the efficiency of system LSI development, and plan to actively apply this verification system to the development of system LSI for digital appliances, mobile phones, and the automobile industry” said Masao Fukuma, Vice President of NEC Corporation’s R&D Unit. “As a support tool to shorten the development time of system LSI, we will continue to actively develop the system toward its exploitation by NEC Electronics’ customers.”
This development will be announced at DAC 2004 being held in San Diego from June 7 to 11, 2004.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (TSE: 6701)(NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) is one of the world’s leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its diverse and global base of customers. Ranked as one of the world’s top patent-producing companies, NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 140,000 people worldwide and had net sales of 4,906 billion yen (approx. $47 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 2004.For further information, please visit the NEC Corporation home page at: www.nec.com
About NEC Electronics Inc.
NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handsets, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and platform solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 24 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.necelam.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.ee.nec.de). In addition to marketing, selling and supporting NEC Electronics products to customers in their respective regions, NEC Electronics America and NEC Electronics Europe also operate local manufacturing facilities in Roseville, California, and Ballivor, Ireland, respectively. Additionally, NEC Electronics America for North America and NEC Electronics Europe for Europe are the sales and marketing channels of NEC AM-LCD and PDP modules.For further information, please visit the NEC Electronics Inc. home page at: www.necel.com
Contact
Diane Foley
NEC Corporation
d-foley@ax.jp.nec.com
+81 3-3798-6511
Sophie Yamamoto
NEC Electronics Corporation
sophie.yamamoto@necel.com
+81 44-435-1664