IMEC and CoWare have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on the development of an integrated design flow for efficiently mapping advanced multimedia and wireless applications on a flexible and programmable platform. The design flow is an integral part of IMEC's multi-mode multimedia program and will be used to develop software-defined radio and multi-format multimedia codecs. The two organizations intend to close the gap between IMEC's proprietary research tools and CoWare's electronic system-level (ESL) design tools.
One of the major targets within the design technology part of the M4 program is to develop an integrated digital design flow for multi-processor based platforms which is applicable for industrial applications. IMEC is said to have an extensive tool suite in support of this design flow and performs research on tools for the design flow that are currently not available on the market. According to the company, the intended collaboration with CoWare is a first industrial partnership to complete the flow. The design flow is driven by research on future applications, such as software-defined radio and multi-format multimedia codecs.
With the move toward nomadic embedded systems, such as an M4 terminal targeted in IMEC's program, designers face huge challenges in the efficient mapping of complex digital applications on flexible multi-processor platforms. Currently, no integrated design flow exists for platform creation together with application mapping that deals with the complexity, flexibility and low-power specifications of new applications within an acceptable design time and cost.
To close this gap, both IMEC and CoWare say the interfaces of their appropriate tools will be made compatible with the requirements of IMEC's design flow. The flow comprises an application mapping flow and platform implementation.
"CoWare and IMEC share a strong strategic relationship that extends back to 1996 when CoWare was founded as an IMEC spin-off," said Karl Van Rompaey, Chief Technical Officer, CoWare. "By connecting CoWare's ESL tools with IMEC's design flow and proprietary tools, we jointly take a major step toward the design of nomadic embedded systems."
IMEC: www.imec.be.
CoWare: http://www.coware.com.
