Press Releases
CriticalBlue Delivers Coprocessor Synthesis with Commercial Release of Cascade Tool Suite
Cascade to demonstrate full-embedded software to hardware migration process at DAC 2004
San Jose, California - May 19, 2004- CriticalBlue, a start-up focused on delivering tools for accelerating software in embedded microprocessor applications has announced the commercial availability of its Cascade tool. Cascade is a coprocessor synthesis solution that delivers an automated migration path from compiled embedded software directly to hardware within existing implementation flows. Working closely with design groups to solve issues dealing with legacy and incremental software within application platforms, Cascade has been architected to facilitate low risk and rapid deployment of platform variants to address new market opportunities . CriticalBlue will showcase its Cascade tool for the first time in the United States at the Design Automation Conference held in San Diego , CA June 7-11, 2004 through demonstrations in the CriticalBlue booth # 3639.
Taking the executable code compiled for the main system processor as its input, Cascade works with standard development environments, including embedded software, system level, and hardware implementation flows. Since it operates within the current software and hardware implementation environments, Cascade is able to support the reuse of existing designs, and/or the integration of new third party software functionality into an existing platform. CriticalBlue's technology makes possible a low risk route for new designs and the rapid creation of faster, cheaper, more flexible, and/or lower power version of existing platforms. The coprocessor generated by Cascade is a fully functional programmable machine, and the tool can modify the coprocessor's implemented functionality by updating its software, while reusing its hardware.
"We were pleased by the acceleration results that CriticalBlue achieved with our imaging application code example," said Luigi Mantellassi, Imaging Division Processors R&D Director, STMicroelectronics. "Next, we will investigate how to deploy Cascade to offload some computationally intensive tasks from the main processor. In this case, the acceleration delivered by Cascade will be used to reach a better HW/SW balance, retaining flexibility for new critical algorithms to be run on the main processor."
Cascade's Working Environment
Cascade automatically generates an optimized coprocessor – as synthesizable RTL with synthesis scripts – from designer-selected application executable code. It also generates a testbench that is used to verify the coprocessor implementation with the same stimuli and expected responses as those of the main processor, ensuring functional equivalence. The optimized coprocessor implementation then proceeds through the designer's own established RTL-to-GDSII design and verification flow.
Cascade uses executable code as input, enabling designers to continue to employ their established software development environments. The use of such code exploits the full capability of C/C++ programs, enabling designers to deploy legacy, new and/or unfamiliar programs without undertaking the non-trivial task of optimizing them to meet overall SoC performance requirements.
In addition, Cascade offers manual intervention capability to those designers wishing to drive SoC performance to the limit. The designer may undertake manual code optimization within the Cascade environment, and may deploy custom functional hardware units to achieve even greater processing performance. Cascade thus affords the designer the optimum combination of automation and manual design control. Deployment of Cascade's automated attributes requires no new language expertise, no new software development environment, C compiler, or manual optimization of software code, and supports the designer's established verification and debug tools.
About CriticalBlue
CriticalBlue is focused on delivering tools for accelerating software in embedded microprocessor applications to key design houses and semiconductor vendors in the telecommunication, automotive and multimedia industries. The Cascade tool suite provides a broader range of implementation options within existing electronic design flows, as well as minimizing risk and development time. This is achieved by analyzing application software and automatically generating an appropriate coprocessor, designed to accelerate tasks written for a general-purpose microprocessor.
For more information, visit www.criticalblue.com, or contact:
David Stewart
CriticalBlue
+1 408 467 5091
Leslie Cumming
Skye Marketing Communications
+ 1 415 285 2352