Axis Systems' Xtreme Verification System Selected by Coolsand to Speed Development of Chips for Portable Multimedia Devices

Language-neutral simulation, acceleration and emulation system enables Coolsand to verify architecture of multimedia SoC early in the design flow

Sunnyvale, CA - October 16, 2002 - Axis Systems, Inc. today announced that Coolsand Technologies Inc. (Paris, France) has purchased the Xtreme™ verification system and is using it early in the design flow to verify the architecture of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) for the portable multimedia consumer electronics market.

Dimitri Singer, vice president of engineering for Coolsand Technologies, said that after evaluating the offerings in the verification market, they selected Axis because Xtreme was not only easy to bring up and use, but also it could be used early in the design flow to accelerate both register-transfer level (RTL) and behavioral code.

Coolsand's multimedia chip is a complex, highly integrated System-on-Chip. The main reason Coolsand needed Xtreme so early in the flow was to run the millions of simulation cycles needed to verify the performance and interoperability of computation-intensive multimedia functions mapped in hardware.

"The main advantage to Xtreme is being able to verify early-on the architecture of our chips," Singer added. "We had to make sure that we made the correct choices. We tested each module, running real C code on the system. If we had to modify the architecture slightly, it was early enough that we didn't impact our schedule. Without Xtreme, we would have had to go all the way to the gate level netlist, and if we then had to change the architecture, it would have made a huge negative impact on our schedule."

"Coolsand needed early proof that their assumptions were correct," said Steve Wang, vice president of marketing at Axis. "Assumptions alone were not enough. We're pleased that the combination of Xtreme with a language-neutral platform and our Behavioral Processor helped increase the productivity of Coolsand's design team. Time-to-market is critical in the highly competitive consumer multimedia market."

Axis introduced the first and only language-neutral verification platform in March 2002. The newest versions of Axis' Xcite™ and Xtreme verification systems support both VHDL and Verilog with no restrictions between language boundaries. During simulation, acceleration, and emulation, customers now can arbitrarily mix both languages in the same design, and debug any signal within that design -- whether it's a VHDL or Verilog signal.

Behavioral Processor is the first verification technology on the market that enables chip designers to accelerate and emulate non-synthesizable behavioral constructs in the code used to build a chip.

About Coolsand
Coolsand Technologies, founded in April 2002, is a privately owned fabless semiconductor company designing chips for the portable multimedia consumer electronics market. Coolsand's vision is to develop low-cost integrated circuits to bring quality portable multimedia devices within the reach of mass consumers to support education, provide entertainment, and enhance productivity.

About Axis Systems
Axis Systems, Inc. offers high-performance verification systems for the hardware and software development of complex electronic system and system-on-a-chip designs. Axis' products help increase confidence in new designs, improve overall verification productivity and shorten time to market. On a single system and with one design database, Axis' patented ReConfigurable Computing (RCC) technology provides software simulation, accelerated simulation, system emulation and hardware/software co-verification. Customers include the world's leading graphics, networking, multimedia, and processor companies. Axis is headquartered at 209 Java Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. To learn more about Axis,  www.axiscorp.com.