Virtualization Recognized as the Future
Virtualization placed at #29 on EETimes list of people, places and things shaping our future
Virtualization has been ranked among the top people, places and things shaping our future, according to a February report by EETimes magazine. The article, which quoted VaST in its virtualization entry, examined the most influential aspects of the modern electronics industry to compile its list.
The news piece noted that shrinking time-to-market windows are creating a requirement that today's designs work the first time. VaST notes that designers are abandoning hardware prototypes in droves for electronics virtualization, because it can cut eight months off a schedule and keeps warranty costs down.
Virtualization abstracts and forecasts redundant details when designing electronic control units. For example, before a cell phone is built, virtualization can gauge its talk time or the number of data transmissions it can process for its battery. For vehicle designs, designers can build a virtual system prototype for each engine control unit, including its specific processor, cache, clock rate and peripherals.
To learn more, click here.
Delphi expands VaST agreement
Delphi Electronics & Safety Division has expanded its contract with VaST Systems to supply virtualization solutions. Delphi uses VaST's solutions in its work developing electronic control unit (ECU) software. VaST helps Delphi develop software without requiring hardware prototypes. By using VaST virtualization solutions, Delphi gains deeper visibility and controllability of the software-design process and creates higher quality products.
To learn more, click here.
Olympus selects VaST as virtual development platform
Olympus Corporation has selected VaST's CoMET as the development tool for advanced research activities for their next-generation LSI design and implementation. Olympus chose CoMET to achieve design-quality improvements at the earliest stage of its system LSI development. It also wants to reduce risk, improve quality and decrease development time using CoMET.
Unlike conventional processor simulators such as instruction-set simulators, CoMET allows system design and simulation with speed and accuracy characteristics similar to real hardware. This virtual environment, combining high speed and cycle accuracy, allows both LSI designers and software developers to perform early system integration. CoMET provides the combination of high speed and cycle accuracy in a platform-development environment that accelerates electronic systems development.
To learn more, click here.
Fabs fade as strategic advantage
Semiconductor companies must move away from building fabs and refocus on building systems, says Wolfgang Ziebart, chief executive of Infineon Technologies. They must also connect with customers at deeper technical levels if they are to survive today's waves of consolidation.
Ziebart believes that because fab access is no longer restricted and everyone has access to the same process technology at roughly the same time, the advantages of building fabs have decreased. What's replaced it is process technology as a differentiator, and systems know-how that is specific to a niche market.
This shift is coming at a time of consolidation among chip and systems makers, forcing engineers at different companies to work together in close collaborations, which is why there are so many collaboration agreements addressing niche markets.
To learn more, click here.
Nintendo semiconductor consumption up
A recent report from Gartner calls Nintendo a "trendsetter." The report further declares that rival OEMs will find it hard to copy Nintendo's success. Why? To catch the trendsetter they would need relationships with major content developers; expertise in software; a focus on ease of use and the overall user experience; and an understanding of the overall electronic ecosystem.
"We expect many electronics firms to experiment with touch screens, nonoptical and optical sensors, and multiple wireless technologies — but many of these offerings will fail, due to poor software and user interface integration. However, these activities should result in growth opportunities for semiconductor firms that provide relevant components," the Gartner analysts wrote.
To learn more, click here.
Standards advancing for virtual prototypes
Several groups and companies are working to drive virtual prototyping standards. Here are a few of the latest developments:
Virtutech Inc., a provider of software-development tools for virtual prototyping, announced in early March that it's joining four standards groups as part of a company initiative to drive virtualization-prototyping standards. The company wants to help define applications programming, binary interfaces and standard libraries to ease interoperability of models and tools.
Some pundits expect the Eclipse Foundation to announce at its EclipseCon conference a new effort to link recent SystemC language work to its standards for tool-user interfaces. Elsewhere, the Spirit Consortium is working to define XML standards for chip-level models, while the GreenSocs group is promoting open-source efforts by giving them a home.
Come April, Power.org, which currently oversees open Power microprocessor cores, plans to launch a standards effort for virtual prototyping. Goals include setting guidelines for modeling interoperability and hybrid simulation models, while establishing a portal for interoperable tools and creating models for Power cores are also on the agenda.
To learn more, click here. |
