I’m sitting in Munich airport. Snowflakes swirl softly in the air outside. I am waiting for my connecting flight. In front of me, an extra large flat screen TV hangs off a pillar, in the waiting area by the boarding gate. On the news, images from Copenhagen and the Climate Change Conference: protesters and diplomats in HD pixels; close-ups of nuclear plants and melting icebergs mirrored throughout the … Read More
Tags: Low Power, Catapult C Synthesis
After the 46th DAC in San Francisco where C synthesis was one of the exhibition highlights, Gary Smith’s latest ESL Market Trends report is yet another confirmation that this discipline is taking off and to paraphrase the report title: “is becoming mainstream”.
Healthy market growth
According to the report, ESL synthesis grew from a $22M market in 2007 to $29.5M in 2008, representing a healthy … Read More
In a recent presentation at the Mentor User2User conference in Dallas, TI’s Karl Renner gave a very detailed presentation on how he used Catapult C to design a set-top-box IP. With only two engineers working on a tight 6 months schedule, Catapult C proved a necessity to complete the project in time.
Karl Renner works as a systems engineer at Texas Instruments in Dallas and over the past 12 years he … Read More
Tags: Catapult C Synthesis, High-Level Synthesis, ASIC, User Testimonial
When it comes to C synthesis successes, the literature – this blog included – is not short of examples quantifying time savings, productivity gains or improved area, timing or power consumption. Today I’d like to propose a new measure of success: “snaps”.
If you slowly raise your right hand and snap you fingers, you get one snap. Repeat this once and you’ll get two snaps. Now accelerate to get two … Read More
Every industry has its own share of oracles prophesizing future trends and “paradigm shifts”. EDA is no exception. Call them experts, analysts or marketing folks. They are frequently irritatingly stubborn, sometimes amusingly wrong, but over time, you’ll also often find them right. From shew stone to tombstone, a vision’s journey can be ephemeral. But others will blossom, flourish and ultimately succeed.
So … Read More
Tags: DAC, High-Level Synthesis, Catapult C Synthesis, User Testimonial
Mars Rover "Spirit"
Water and life on Mars? Robotic explorers “Spirit” and “Opportunity” recently found strong evidence of past water on the red planet, a necessary condition for the presence of any kind of lifeform. At the Denver and Boston EDA Tech Forums, Dr. Steven W. Squyres – Principal Investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Project – will give an industry keynote on his lessons from this … Read More
1965, Corvallis, Oregon. It is the end of a long summer day. 18-year old Dick practices his high-jump technique on the tracks of Oregon State University. The few students sitting on the stands barely pay attention to the athlete’s relentless efforts to cross a stubbornly high bar. Had they known… Three years later in Mexico, an electrified crowd of 80.000 acclaims young Dick as he sets a new Olympic … Read More
Tags: Catapult C Synthesis
My colleague, Thomas Bollaert, wrote a nice blog entry just before DAC 2009, in which he mentions the tight integration Catapult C Synthesis has with power analysis and optimization tools such as Atrenta’s SpyGlass-Power and Sequence Design’s PowerTheater. While corporate blogs will naturally tend to gravitate towards their own products, Thomas touched upon an excellent point about the importance … Read More
Tags: Catapult C Synthesis
It is late Friday evening, DAC is just a few hours away, but the word is out: Catapult C tops the DAC “must-see” product lists of three renowned and independent industry analysts.
Earlier this week, Gary Smith was the first to disclose his top picks. ESL Synthesis was number one on his traditional “What to see at DAC” list.
Only a few hours ago, Bill Murray of SCDsource rolled out his own list of … Read More
DAC is undoubtedly the best opportunity for EDA users to meet with their peers and share experiences about new and innovative design practices.
If you are looking for first hand feedback on Catapult C, don’t miss the two user testimonials in the Mentor Graphics suites. This year, presenters from Hitachi and STMicroelectronics will talk about their achievements with the tool and the deployment of a … Read More
Tags: DAC, High-Level Synthesis, Catapult C Synthesis, Partner