Synplicity Unveils Confirma Platform for At-Speed ASIC/ASSP Verification

Synplicity Inc. recently unveiled the Confirma platform, a next generation, high-performance verification solution that dramatically improves the traditional ASIC and ASSP verification process. The Confirma platform brings together best-in-class hardware and software tools, creating a tightly integrated, hardware-assisted verification solution that helps customers address today and tomorrow's ASIC and ASSP verification challenges. The Confirma platform includes Synplicity's Certify tool, the industry standard for multi-FPGA partitioning and implementation; as well as the company's recently introduced Identify Pro software with TotalRecall technology providing full visibility into the design under test; and, the HAPS (HARDI ASIC Prototyping System) FPGA-based prototyping hardware, the most flexible prototyping boards on the market today.

Demand from ASIC and ASSP designers for considerably more verification horsepower and the availability of a new generation of high-density devices, make FPGA-based prototyping one of the fastest growing verification methodologies today. To date, however, designers are still challenged with piecing together their own solutions. The current choice involves selecting different hardware and software tools from various vendors, ensuring these tools are adequate to address a designer's particular verification needs, and finally, creating an ad-hoc flow for tool interoperability. Synplicity's solution takes FPGA-based prototyping to the next usability and productivity level by transforming it into a tightly integrated, comprehensive at-speed verification solution—the Confirma platform.

"The Confirma platform allows designers to approach verification differently," said Juergen Jaeger, senior director of ASIC verification marketing at Synplicity. "Instead of thinking 'how can I reduce verification and cut corners to meet the product schedule', users can now start thinking 'what additional verification can I run to improve design and product quality'. Synplicity is uniquely positioned to address, for the first time, all the major steps needed to successfully leverage the performance of FPGA-based prototypes as a viable and productive ASIC and ASSP verification solution—from implementation to at-speed execution and debug of the design under test. The Confirma platform makes prototyping easy to use and highly productive."

The three major components of the Confirma platform, as stand-alone tools, are already considered best-in-class: the Certify software takes an existing ASIC design and partitions it into multiple FPGAs; the HAPS prototyping boards are the hardware execution engine; and Identify Pro software, with its revolutionary TotalRecall technology, provides full visibility and a seamless interface into industry-standard software simulators for easy debugging. When used together, the tools provide the highest-performance ASIC and ASSP verification platform available today. In addition, the Confirma platform's modular and scalable architecture deploys prototypes as replicates, thus significantly reducing overall system verification time for software developers and systems integrators by enabling them to run actual software applications.

Synplicity