SystemC Converges For Design

June 1, 2003

The importance of system-level design was one of the recurring themes at this year's DAC. Many people see the SystemC language as the way to achieve high-level hardware and software design parity. To support this goal, CoWare announced the ConvergenSC SystemC product family. Pronounced "convergency," ConvergenSC uses a common infrastructure for both design and verification. It is built expressly for SystemC to integrate the multi-disciplinary requirements of system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs. Now, system architects, platform and intellectual-property (IP) developers, and system integrators have a SystemC-based environment to create optimal, differentiated SoC designs.

The first product to be announced in the ConvergenSC family is System Designer. It enables the convergence of system architecture design and verification. System Designer shaves development time by providing high-speed simulation, architecture analysis, and design implementation on a single SystemC-based infrastructure. Its capabilities include:

The creation of SystemC Transactional Prototype models for SoCs containing multiple processors, complex buses, memories, custom logic, and software
Simulation performance using an all-new, fully compliant, SystemC simulation architecture that runs up to five times faster than the Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) SystemC reference simulator
Unique analysis capabilities for creating optimal design architectures, including Bus Views showing occupancy, transactions, and contention; Memory Views showing cache hits and misses; and Embedded Processor Views showing processor utilization for software tasks or functions

CoWare's ConvergenSC System Designer product and a standalone version of the high-performance SystemC simulator, called ConvergenSC System Verifier, are available now. Both run on Sun Solaris and Linux operating systems. ConvergenSC System Designer starts at $105,000 U.S. for a three-year license. Current CoWare N2C System Designer customers may upgrade to ConvergenSC System Designer at no charge.

CoWare, Inc. 2121 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95131; (408) 436-4720, www.coware.com.

About the Author

John Blyler

John Blyler has more than 18 years of technical experience in systems engineering and program management. His systems engineering (hardware and software) background encompasses industrial (GenRad Corp, Wacker Siltronics, Westinghouse, Grumman and Rockwell Intern.), government R&D (DoD-China Lake) and university (Idaho State Univ, Portland State Univ, and Oregon State Univ) environments. John is currently the senior technology editor for Penton Media’s Wireless Systems Design (WSD) magazine. He is also the executive editor for the WSD Update e-Newsletter.

Mr. Blyler has co-authored an IEEE Press (1998) book on computer systems engineering entitled: ""What's Size Got To Do With It: Understanding Computer Systems."" Until just recently, he wrote a regular column for the IEEE I&M magazine. John continues to develop and teach web-based, graduate-level systems engineering courses on a part-time basis for Portland State University.

John holds a BS in Engineering Physics from Oregon State University (1982) and an MS in Electronic Engineering from California State University, Northridge (1991).