Ricoh Deploys CoWare ESL 2.0 Solutions for Architecture Optimization and Pre-Silicon Software Development

First Project Achieves 90% Savings in Operating System Porting and Boot Loader Development Time

YOKOHAMA, Japan & SAN JOSE, Calif.-- January 19, 2009 -- CoWare®, Inc., the leading supplier of platform-driven electronic system-level (ESL) design software and services, announced today that Ricoh Company, Ltd. is deploying CoWare ESL 2.0 solutions in production for system-on-chip (SoC) platform architecture design and pre-silicon software development. In their first project, a next generation wireless communications SoC for office automation applications, Ricoh achieved a 90% savings in operating system porting and boot loader software development time with CoWare virtual hardware platforms compared to previous experience with traditional design methods and FPGA prototyping.

“Ricoh delivers a breadth of innovative technologies to its customers,” said Sadahiro Kimura, R&D engineer, 3rd Research Department, Core Technology Research Center at Ricoh. “Our initial experience with CoWare significantly shortened the hardware-software development cycle compared to conventional design – we were able to reduce operating system porting and boot loader software development time for our SoC by 90% and validate optimal performance before final RTL implementation, preventing errors in chip implementation and reducing cost. We are investing in CoWare ESL 2.0 solutions in order to realize these benefits, improve time to market, and deliver better products.”

“CoWare’s ESL 2.0 solutions enable virtual hardware platforms to be created and used by hardware architects and software developers. This unique link provides users with the right accuracy, debugging and performance analysis visibility, and ultra-fast, multi-core simulation capabilities for architecture optimization and pre-silicon software development,” said Marc Serughetti, vice president of marketing and business development at CoWare. “We are pleased to support Ricoh design teams in their deployment to realize their expected return on investment.”

Ricoh, a global leader in digital office solutions (www.ricoh.com), presented a paper on their experience at the ESL User Meeting (Japan CoWare Innovators Group: J-CING) that was held last November in Tokyo, Japan. During the presentation, Ricoh highlighted these CoWare solutions:

• CoWare Platform Architect and the CoWare IP Model Library for the design and verification of multi-core hardware platform architectures as well as the development of high-speed virtual platforms for software development.
• CoWare Virtual Platform for the development, integration and test of embedded and application software for complex, multi-core platforms.

About CoWare

CoWare is the leading global supplier of platform-driven electronic system-level (ESL) design software and services. IP, semiconductor, and electronics companies use CoWare ESL 2.0 solutions to design better processor- and software-intensive products faster. CoWare solutions solve the new design challenges associated with platform architecture design, platform verification, application sub-system design, processor design, DSP algorithm design, and software development, and are based on open industry standards including SystemC. These solutions also enable IP and semiconductor companies to implement more effective go-to-market strategies. CoWare’s corporate investors include ARM [(LSE: ARM - News); (NASDAQ: ARMHY - News)], Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ: CDNS - News), STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM - News), and Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE - News). CoWare is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and has offices around the world. For more information about CoWare and its products and services visit http://www.coware.com.