Synplicity, Inc. today released details on its TotalRecall (TM) Full Visibility Technology. Synplicity believes that this new technology will dramatically improve the utility of FPGA prototypes as ASIC verification vehicles by giving designers the ability to rapidly find bugs and verify that the correct fix has been made. The TotalRecall technology allows access to debug visibility that meets or exceeds that of an emulator, while running at speeds of 10x to 100x faster. In addition, this new innovative technology enables the capture of full signal information leading up to an event, as well as after the event occurs.
The TotalRecall technology allows the capture of all of the signals within a design (either a module or the full chip), including memory states, a user-defined number of cycles prior to the point at which an error occurs. The complete design state, along with an automatically generated test bench, can then be exported to an HDL simulator where the sequence can be replayed as many times as necessary until the problem is understood and a fix verified. The patented TotalRecall technology is unique in that it allows fixes to be tested within the simulation environment using exactly the same signal values that led to the bug occurring in the first place. The TotalRecall technology also supports powerful hardware verification techniques enabled by the use of assertions synthesized into hardware. Many IC designers use assertions in the design flow but do not fully utilize them for verification due to their slow simulation speeds. Synthesizing assertions into FPGA hardware allows aggressive use of assertions for verification, due to the high speed at which the assertion can be tested. For example, using a software simulator alone to run through a cell phone boot up sequence would take in excess of 30 days. In an FPGA prototype running at 20 MHz, however, that same boot up sequence can be accomplished in 3 seconds, allowing full use of assertions to detect bugs quickly and make fixes that can be rapidly validated [1]. Combining FPGA-based prototyping, assertion synthesis and the TotalRecall technology will enable bugs to be detected quickly when compared to other methods that would either miss or not be able to cover during verification.
"TotalRecall technology is an exciting step forward in debug visibility and productivity," stated Gary Meyers, president and CEO at Synplicity. "Combined with the already high performance and low cost of FPGA prototypes, the new capabilities of the TotalRecall technology will position prototypes as the leading method for ASIC verification." Unlike other solutions, the TotalRecall technology works for non-deterministic bugs found in live running hardware. For this class of bugs, and other rarely occurring bugs, it is almost impossible to verify that changes made to the RTL code have truly fixed a bug. For these cases, combining the TotalRecall technology with FPGA-prototype speeds will uniquely capture full design visibility before and after the bug is triggered, providing the user with the full environment required to verify the fix.
Synplicity sees opportunity for its TotalRecall technology to be well integrated with capabilities from outside partners, particularly members of its Partners in Prototyping program. Synplicity will be developing reference design flows and integration with all major simulation environments. Further details on products containing the TotalRecall technology will be available in mid 2007.
About Synplicity's Partners in Prototyping Program
Many of the world's leading FPGA-based prototyping board vendors have joined Synplicity's Partners in Prototyping (PIP) program to develop flows for their boards using Synplicity's tools. The PIP program is used to identify and qualify design methodologies between Synplicity's prototyping applications and complementary RTL functional prototyping hardware, software and design services. Members of the program include Altera, AMO GmbH, ARM, The Dini Group, EVE, Flexody, GiDEL, HARDI Electronics, Nallatech, ProDesign and SK-Electronics Co. For more information on Synplicity's Partners in Prototyping go to http://www.synplicity.com/partners/pip/index.html
