The Latest Industry Headlines
 VaST appoints Marios Zenios to board of directors
This spring, VaST announced that it has appointed Marios Zenios, a veteran of the automotive electronics industry, to the company's board of directors.
Zenios had been serving as a strategic advisor, helping VaST form industry initiatives that create more complete virtualization solutions. In his new role, Zenios will focus on helping VaST develop strategies for maximizing the value of its virtualization solutions in the automotive and electronics industries.
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VaST and Tensilica to deliver high-performance models supporting electronics virtualization for consumer electronics OEMs
Customers of Tensilica's fully configurable Xtensa processor products and off-the-shelf Diamond Standard Series will be able to easily import Tensilica's cycle-accurate instruction set simulator into the VaST CoMET System Engineering Environment. With the availability of the Tensilica processor models, chip designers can test their Tensilica processor-based designs early in the design cycle with real software using VaST virtual system prototypes. Using the imported models will significantly shorten the overall design cycle compared to traditional design methods.
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Delphi expands VaST agreement
Delphi Electronics & Safety Division has expanded its contract for virtualization solutions with VaST Systems. Delphi uses VaST's solutions in 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 control of the software-design process and creates higher-quality products.
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Epson selects VaST for virtual platform development
Seiko Epson Corp. ("Epson"), a leader in the inkjet printer market, has selected VaST's CoMET as its development tool for printer product design. Epson was impressed with CoMET's execution speed, accuracy and virtual prototype debugging visibility. Epson expects that the CoMET tool will help its designers reduce total development time and project risk while improving the quality of the hardware and software systems much earlier in the design flow.
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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. The opto-digital technology manufacturer also wants to reduce risk, improve quality and decrease development time by using CoMET.
Unlike conventional processor simulators such as instruction-set simulators, CoMET enables system design and simulation with speed and accuracy characteristics similar to real hardware. This virtual environment lets LSI designers and software developers perform early system integration. CoMET provides the combination of high speed and cycle accuracy in a platform-development environment that accelerates electronic systems development.
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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. The companies 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. Process technology has become the differentiator, along with systems know-how that's 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 collaboration, which is why so many collaboration agreements address niche markets.
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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, competitors 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.
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Standards advancing for virtual prototypes
Several groups and companies are working to drive virtual prototyping standards. Here are a few of the latest developments:
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.
In April, Power.org, which currently oversees open Power microprocessor cores, launched a standards effort for virtual prototyping. The Power.org Virtual Platform and Simulation Technical Subcommittee (TSC) has started work on standards integration, guidelines for modeling interoperability and hybrid simulation models, and defining and making available virtual platforms that build on the work of existing standards such as SystemC and IP-XACT.
"As embedded systems become more complex, engineers are relying on simulation technology to optimize designs, meet shorter development cycles and deliver time-to-market advantages," said Kaveh Massoudian, chairperson of Power.org's Virtual Platforms and Simulation TSC. "This technology benefits all phases of system development and is an inherent part of a best-of-breed product-design methodology."
VaST particularly acknowledges the contributions of Richard Bohl for his excellent support and work on getting SystemC embedded into this proposal. The net of the scope proposal includes two main goals:
- Working in the SystemC language to create a modeling and interoperability guideline for creation of peripheral models that will play in any Power environment and that the community can leverage
- Creating a Virtual Reference Platform that prospects and customers can evaluate
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