Hierarchical System-on-Chip cosimulation and emulation now available

DOLPHIN INTEGRATION AND RAISONANCE LAUNCH A THREE-PRONGED LONG-AWAITED BREAKTHROUGH IN HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM DESIGN AROUND 8051 CORES

Hierarchical System-on-Chip cosimulation and emulation now available

Grenoble, France, March 20th, 2001 - DOLPHIN Integration SA and RAISONANCE SA have launched a visionary innovation for adapting traditional Microcontroller Development techniques to the age of Silicon Intellectual Property in System-on-Chips (SoC). The first products to benefit from the joint venture are the Dolphin line of Flip8051 Virtual Components, celebrated for its top-notch quality due to their seamless simulation engine SMASH?, and the Raisonance line of Emulators and debuggers, known worldwide for their powerful C-Compiler and Sim-ICE Instruction Set Simulator (ISS).

The name of the challenge nowadays is design productivity for Time-to-Market in exciting product upgrades: the joint venture at once provides any SoC embedded microprocessor with just that. The three-pronged offering responds to the challenge with Innovation, Emulation and Cosimulation for Systems.

Innovation starts with a value enhancing patent

The growing market of Information Appliances witnesses demand for remotely customizable functions, so that embedded programs become sensitive intellectual property, all too attractive for piracy: it not only contains sensitive data, but vital know how. With microcontrollers until now, hackers can easily Read or Write the contents of appliance memories embedded in a System-on-Chip, typically through the emulation interface with ordinary development tools!

The brand new solution patented by Dolphin gives to the program developer exclusive control over his memory access; he may authorize selectively memory Read and Write operations on either data memory or program memory embedded with any microprocessor in a SoC. Additionally this State-of-the-Art solution allows keeping, whenever required, special pins for emulation of any version of the IC, in debug or production, for in-situ (remote) diagnostic and in-situ (remote) maintenance, or for in-situ download of new releases of some proprietary embedded application.

This protection mechanism is implemented by means of a slight modification of the microprocessor Virtual Component and is set through the interface to its emulator and software development station, wired or wireless.

"We want to provide our customers with a partnership that would give to the Intel legacy 8051 heritage the appeal from 8 to 16/32 bits, which ARM has succeeded in giving to a legacy VLSI Risc Core for 32 Bits" declared Jean-Francois Pollet, Dolphin's VP of Product Development.

Emulation renewed by a Programmed Open Clone

Here is the cornerstone for empowering such innovations: a novel patent jointly owned by Raisonance and Dolphin enables a new architecture for emulators so that such simple upgrades as that for antipiracy protection, can be added at once to the Virtual Component of the microcontroller without making its emulator obsolete.

SoC designers who need easy prototyping for fast ramp-up with best Time-To-Market may resort to the latest FPGA version of the core. Such a FPGA version is the first step toward the final "Programmed Open Clone", or Dolphin's POC, to give life to Raisonance's novel Emulator architecture.

Simply put: while an emulator of the 80's embeds an expensive replica of the whole microcontroller, thus enabling solely the debugging of software, breadboard and emulator can now be designed as a whole hierarchically. They simply have to interface with an externalized clone of the mere central microprocessor which is given the form of a FPGA shaped as a derivative of the Virtual Component RTL description, and opened for efficient tracing functions. This breakthrough entrusts the emulation station with the additional role of check-out for the peripheral configuration. The same emulator card can now be used for any SoC embedding the same microprocessor, whatever the peripherals or their complexity, even analog.

Any upgrade of the microprocessor is straightforwardly applied to its clone programmed through its FPGA in the emulator, freeing creativity for the second life of a stable processor architecture like the 8051. This innovation opens a new era where every new instanciation of a Virtual Component for a SoC is an opportunity for maintaining upward software compatibility, while introducing upgrades or customizing features to ensure each user with a proprietary edge over competitors exploiting the same architecture.

"With the advent of Synthesizable Intellectual Property (SIP) and the generalized use of Virtual Components for System-on-Chip design, someone - declared Francis Lamotte, CEO of Raisonance - had to face the need to move-on from the stale emulator architectures of the pre-SIP era. We are enabling the needed step function improvement with respect to the most celebrated microcontrollers with the economy of a wealth of application program banks."

Cosimulation as SoCKET for SUCCESS?

Nowadays software developers on a microcontroller expect to benefit from a C compiler and from an Instruction Set Simulator (ISS). As a provider of Virtual Components, DOLPHIN focuses on improving ?Enabling Technologies? for better SoC integration: typically a SoCKET, or Kit of Enabling Technologies, is needed here for facilitating the simulation of a synthesizable microcontroller like Flip8051 within its SoC. There are commonly three levels of description of increasing simulation speed: the synthesizable VHDL or Verilog source code (possibly embedded in our proprietary simulation engine), then synthesizable VHDL or Verilog "dataflow", and ultimately a purely simulatable version of the RTL model made unsynthesizable by some OMI-like operation (Open Modeling Interface).

The ISS and ?dataflow? solutions are readily available for Virtual Component evaluation. They present differences in simulation speed and ease of use, but none offers a complete solution for simulation of your whole SoC, i.e. simulation of the microprocessor together with associated peripherals: logic (I2C, SPI?), analog (ADC, DAC, amplifiers?), memories?, which could be described in Verilog-HDL, VHDL, SPICE, VHDL-AMS, C-language...

DOLPHIN and RAISONANCE now associate their proprietary simulators for building a complete solution for simulating efficiently at SoC level! They combine on the one hand Sim-ICE (Instruction Set Simulator), which enables programming the application, so as to drive on the other hand SMASH? (mixed signal simulation engine), which enables simulating core peripherals at Register Transfer Level (RTL) and bus-linked peripherals analog or mixed signal.

SUCCESS? is the joint product name, which stands unequivocally as the awaited "Solution for Unified Cosimulation of Controllers Embedded in a Smashing SoC"!

Upon checking their application programs with SUCCESS?, prior to any breadboard availability, users are confident to download them onto the emulator for final debug: this is the key to concurrent design.

"That such a blockbuster would result from a partnership of close neighbors in the Grenoble area - boasted Michel Depeyrot, CEO of the Dolphin Group - is a strong message about the emergence of a true silicon valley effect in our Alpine region".
 

Hierarchical System design made real

DOLPHIN had sensed that microcontrollers configured around the 8051 would provide the most effective hands-on experience for the fledgling market of Systems-on-Chip (SoC), which they are serving. Multiple customers around the world are already benefiting from the Flip8051 in diverse applications. They request support in two forms: addition of peripherals or embedded memories, and adaptation of core or interfacing functions. This is where the concept " SoCKET for Virtual Chip Sets" finds its dynamics: SoC integrators start expressing their needs for selecting the right core option, with an optimal "Figure of Merit" since a whole range of cycle-time trade-offs is offered, plus a DSP coprocessor. The natural next step is to select adequate peripherals or embedded memories, or even capacitive-pressure sensor generators for MEMS? Next the user may need assistance for core adaptations or interfacing functions, followed with swiftly adapted emulation and debug tools.

Providing then an effective simulation capability for the system designer was a must?

Availability and Support

The Flip8051 core forms the heart of an evolving family of processors with lower performance options as well as full microcontroller configurations that include peripherals like timers, serial interfaces and AD/DA converters. Pricing starts as low as $ 10,000, in EDIF format for FPGA. VHDL or VERILOG source-code versions are deliverable together with a thorough Virtual Testbench.

In addition, Dolphin offers evaluation boards with an FPGA that allows customers to evaluate a hardware version of the core immediately. They also offer design services, annual maintenance agreements and technical support via fax and email.

New architectural innovations are pending and shall regularly be added, which will guarantee the Flip8051 to stay on the leading edge.

Dolphin had placed emphasis on customers? SoC being right on first pass. Therefore upward migration is made easier by extending SIP Licenses with Innovation Contracts, whereby users get regular architectural upgrades along a Roadmap with stages of safe migration toward full 16-bit then 32-bit extensions. This is where both POC and SoCKET find their full raison d'être.

 

About DOLPHIN Integration

This European Enterprise, provider of "Service Empowered IP" for Logic, Analog and Memory Virtual Components, offers a wide range of Virtual Components with design services and support; from turnkey design to consulting support for customers wanting efficient insertion of FLIP cores from kits into their SoC design. Dolphin is a member of the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA).

The corporate charter is to help customers meet the challenges of time-to-market with a System-on-Chip design succeeding with high yield and reliability. For additional information you can find Dolphin at www.dolphin-integration.com or address your inquiries to  flip@dolphin.fr

 

About RAISONANCE

Raisonance designs and manufactures a variety of Microprocessor Development Systems, including Compilers, Simulators, High Level Language Debuggers, Real Time Operating Systems, Integrated Development Environment, Evaluation Boards and Real Time In-Circuit Emulators. Supported target architectures include 8051 from several manufacturers, XA from Philips, ST6 from STMicroelectronics, Smart Card products from Philips and specific and proprietary architectures.

Founded in 1988 and located near Grenoble in the French Alps, Raisonance is committed to provide high quality products dedicated to suit the specific needs of the embedded market by introducing innovative and unique solutions. Raisonance development tools are distributed and supported worldwide. For more information, see www.raisonance.com

 

FLIP®, Smash®, SoCKET, and SUCCESS are trademarks of Dolphin Integration SA.