GiDEL Releases the Fastest, Scalable SoC/ASIC Verification System Built on Largest and Fastest FPGA's

New System Targets SoC Development Projects of 3 to 180 Million Gates

April 30, 2008 -- Or-Akiva, Israel -- GiDEL, a leader in reconfigurable systems, today announced that it has released a new generation of the PROC_SoC™ Verification System. The PROC_SoC family is designed to debug and verify SoC designs of diverse design styles.  The new generation has doubled the capacity of the system by incorporating Altera’s new Stratix® III EP3SL340, the world’s largest and fastest FPGA.

Designed for maximum performance with flexible, high density interconnect.
The PROC_SoC has a unique, flexible interconnect topology that allows any FPGA device to directly connect with large numbers of pins to any other programmable device in the entire system.  Users match system interconnect to the topology of the design being verified.  There are over 950 pins per FPGA available to connect to (1) FPGAs on the same reconfigurable board, (2) FPGAs on other boards in the same PROC_SoC module,  (3) FPGAs on any other PROC_SoC module in multiple module PROC_SoC systems, or (4) user’s IOs.

The system is architected and designed to operate at system clock speeds up to 300MHz.   Test suites and real-time operation with embedded and application software will experience the shortest possible verification time and the most effective system integration before silicon for users.

Unique, scalable hardware system is designed for 3 to 180 million ASIC gates.
Two scalable, multiple-board, card cage-based configurations are available.  The PROC_SoC 10-3S module holds up to ten PROC6M, dual-FPGA, 6 million gate boards.  The smaller PROC_SoC 3-3S holds up to three PROC6M boards.  Capacities are 60 million and 18 million ASIC gates respectively. Each PROC6M board has two, interconnected, high speed Altera Stratix EP3SL340 FPGAs and 256 MB of onboard DRAM, or 2.56 GB for each full PROC_SoC 10-3S module, and 768 MB for the PROC_SoC 3-3S.  Each PROC6M has over 1400 FPGA IO’s are brought to 118 pin edge connectors for user allocated FPGA-to-FPGA interconnection.

“The PROC_SoC system meets the increasing verification needs of large SoC designs and system software development.” commented Reuven Weintraub, GiDEL President and CTO.  “In particular, the PROC_SoC is a high speed verification system for designs with complex structures requiring large amounts of interconnect between the FPGAs.”

Fast, efficient implementation shortens time to debug.
The PROC_SoC system includes a comprehensive suite of best in breed software tools for implementing and debugging designs.  The PROCWizard Software manages the data and integrates the files generated by best of breed tools for partitioning, design mapping, synthesis, place and route, and debug trigger logic and data capture.  For each user's development environment, PROCWizard will generate a dedicated driver with optimized performance. This enables fast setup and running of comprehensive test benches from a host across a network to the verification system, and co-development with software development tools running on a host.

PROC_SoC Finds and Helps Resolve More Bugs Faster.
With the PROC_SoC System, tests will run the fastest of all comparable systems, and those hard to reach bugs are found quicker. There are various methods of capturing data and debugging designs to meet the needs of teams at different phases of their projects.  Debugging can use both distributed memories within the FPGAs and on-board memories to capture signal data. The PROCWizard debug GUI enables direct access to the design IOs and running of tests.  Scripts are automatically generated of test processes for replay. The configurable multi-port, on-board memories can be easily set up to capture data from thousands of probe points during testing with virtually unlimited depth. Also, with the supplied SignalTap software, or with debug IP specialist DAFCA’s ClearBlue software, probes can be set for broad visibility using internal FPGA memories.

Sharable, scalable capacity
Teams only purchase the capacity they require, and add more capacity as needed. The PROC6M boards fit into a PROC_SoC module card cages within compact cabinets.   Multiple PROC_SoC modules can be used for extremely large designs. Further, multiple users can independently access different reconfigurable boards in the same PROC_SoC module for independent designs and block-level regression tests. Fast/Gigabit networking interfaces to the PROC_SoC modules dynamically allow the system to be directly linked to various computers for running the test benches and for very fast device programming.

The system is complemented by a suite of application specific PROC system daughter boards for direct system interfaces like DVI, PHY/Ethernet, etc.   Specifications are provided for design teams to also build their own proprietary daughter boards.

System Integration Before Silicon.
To enable software development early in the design process, the reasonable pricing of the fully configured systems makes them ideal for supplying multiple testbeds for software development teams to begin verification of software prior to silicon availability.  As software is developed, it can be exercised running at hardware speeds savings months of development time. In many cases that by itself will put the SoC into production earlier.

PROC_SoC System delivery times are 4-6 weeks ARO. Prices start at about $30,000.  

About GiDEL.

GiDEL Ltd. is a successful, profitable and innovative company which was founded in 1993. GiDEL has become one of the market leaders as a company that continuously provides cutting-edge reconfigurable technology utilizing FPGAs. GiDEL sees it's customers as partners and uses its vast experience at the project-level and FPGA design to focus on its customers' projects’ success. Customers in semiconductor, consumer product,  communications, machine vision, medical imaging, and military/aerospace markets purchase the PROC family of reconfigurable PROCessors (1) for SoC and ASIC verification, (2) as COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) acquisition and accelerator boards, and (3) to validate complex algorithms. For more information, contact GiDEL in North America at 408-969-0389, or worldwide at +972 4 610 2505, or on the web at www.gidel.com.