Target's IP Designer Tool-Suite Adopted by Dialog Semiconductor to Create OpenVG Graphics Processor Core

49th Design Automation Conference – San Francisco, California, June 4, 2012 -- Target Compiler Technologies, the leader in design tools for application-specific processors (ASIPs), today announced that Dialog Semiconductor adopted Target’s IP Designer™ tool-suite to create a new embedded graphics processor core. The highly-efficient and automated IP Designer tool-suite enabled the design of the processor architecture and hardware, and the implementation of the OpenVG™ 1.1 embedded graphics API in a record time, for integration into Dialog Semiconductor’s recently announced Green VoIP™ “SC14453” multicore system-on-chip (SoC).

IP Designer is a tool suite for designing ASIPs in multicore SoCs. These ASIPs offer high-performance and low-power consumption characteristics more typical of hardwired accelerators, yet provide the flexibility of a software-programmable solution. IP Designer enables quick architectural exploration to find the best instruction-set architecture for the application domain, and generates a complete software development kit (SDK) including an optimizing C compiler, as well as a low-power RTL hardware implementation for each ASIP.

While Dialog is a long-time user of Target’s IP Designer tool-suite, it was the first time for the company to apply the tool-suite in the graphics domain. The total number of ASIPs designed with IP Designer in Dialog’s SC14453 SoC is three: next to the graphics core it also contains two instances of Dialog’s Gen3DSP ASIP. Gen3DSP is an ultra-low power signal processor for audio and communication functions, also designed with IP Designer.

“Dialog’s new design underscores IP Designer’s suitability for creating and programming ASIPs for graphics processing,” says Werner Geurts, VP Applications at Target. “Key architectural features of this OpenVG graphics core include the use of application-specific floating-point operators of different word-lengths, a deep instruction pipeline with register bypasses to avoid dependency hazards, and the combined use of instruction-level parallelism and single-instruction multiple-data processing. IP Designer supports these features well, both in its C compiler and its RTL hardware generation technology,” Geurts continues.

René Kohlmann, Senior Director for Dialog’s Low Energy Wireless and VoIP Business Development, comments: “The addition of 2D graphics support to our new Green VoIP chip will enable our customers to add intuitive color touch-screens to their VoIP products. Ultra-low power and small area requirements dictated the design of an application-specific graphics processor. Using IP Designer’s automated generation capability of optimized hardware and C compiler, we were able to develop an OpenVG implementation in silicon right on schedule.”

“We are delighted with Dialog’s continued commitment to ASIP designs, based on our IP Designer tool-suite,” says Gert Goossens, Target’s CEO. “Systems-on-chip for consumer and enterprise products are evolving into advanced multi-functional multicore architectures. The combination of high performance, low power, low cost and flexibility naturally results in a need for multiple ASIPs. Dialog’s new Green VoIP chip illustrates this trend well. We are especially happy with this design win in the embedded graphics space, where we expect power and cost requirements will increasingly result in a choice for application-specific architectures,” Goossens adds.

About Target Compiler Technologies

Target Compiler Technologies (www.retarget.com) is the leading provider of retargetable software tools to accelerate the design, programming and verification of application-specific processor cores (ASIPs). Target's IP Designer tool suite is ideally suited for SoC designs in markets that mandate low silicon cost, low energy consumption, and flexibility to accommodate algorithmic changes. The tools have been used by customers around the globe to design SoCs for 2G/3G/4G handsets, cordless and VoIP phones, audio/video/image processing, infotainment and security for cars, DSL modems, DSL access multiplexers, wireless LAN, hearing instruments, and personal healthcare systems. Target is a spin-off of the Belgian nano-electronics R&D center IMEC, is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, with North American operations in Boulder, Colorado.