Press Releases
Imaging Project Executed with CriticalBlue's Cascade and Synplicity Synplify Pro®
RTL Generated by Cascade Implemented Seamlessly on FPGA Prototype System
San Jose, California - February 28, 2005 - CriticalBlue, a start-up company focused on delivering tools for accelerating software in embedded microprocessor applications has announced the completion of the prototyping phase for a project with a leading semiconductor company. They used CriticalBlue's Cascade tool and Synplicity's Synplify Pro® FPGA implementation flow to automatically offload embedded software from the main processor and onto an optimized coprocessor architected by Cascade. The prototype was realized on a Xilinx® Virtex-IITM device.
As embedded software continues to become a key component on SoC based systems, the critical key for differentiating functionality is the ability to deliver embedded software via customer specifications, licensable IP or as reference code from the Internet. In each case, it is necessary to validate the software functionality and then to identify those parts of the software which require it to be accelerated using hardware. CriticalBlue's Cascade product; continues to prove that software functions can be automatically offloaded onto programmable optimized hardware without the need for time consuming and risky software-hardware partitioning.
The benchmark project involved an open source embedded software implementation of a BCH error correction solution typically used in wireless applications. The end customer selected the example and set appropriate and meaningful goals in terms of gate count and performance. The source code was compiled, functionally verified and profiled on an ARM® processor using the ARM RealView® tool suite, and then imported into CriticalBlue's Cascade tool. Within Cascade, the profiling results were used to identify the appropriate software functions for offloading to a coprocessor, and the relevant target technology and system parameters were set up along with the gate count and performance constraints required by the customer. Cascade then automatically generated a series of candidate architectures to implement those software functions as a dedicated co-processor, and displayed them such that a customer software or hardware engineer could quickly and easily see how the co-processor candidates performed against the constraints. This is important in that the gate count and performance predictions be accurate compared with the results obtained later during hardware implementation.
Functionality Described As Embedded Software
The project involved a significant audio application within the context of the design of an imaging platform. The audio application was around 6,000 lines of C code. Analysis of the profiling results indicated that, to completely free up the main processor, over 200 functions would need to be offloaded onto the coprocessor. Cascade, working directly from the compiled executable code of the complete application, produced a series of candidate architectures based on user defined system constraints. Once the best architecture had been identified, Cascade optimized and generated RTL for the coprocessor as well as creating the coprocessor's microcode. The offloading of the 200 functions was handled entirely by Cascade, including the necessary hardware and software interfaces between the main processor and the coprocessor. The final stage of the flow was to simulate and verify the RTL and then to use the Synplify Pro® software to optimize and map the coprocessor onto a Xilinx® Virtex-IITM FPGA.
"This project demonstrates very well that the combination of CriticalBlue's Cascade product and our industry standard Synplify Pro® toolset is extremely powerful," stated Joe Gianelli, Vice President of Business Development, Synplicity, Inc. "Given the continued rise in the use of embedded software in programmable platforms, the direct flow from compiled software through the Synplicity implementation products and into programmable hardware is a major breakthrough."
Running the complete application on the resulting physical prototype system made it easy to generate audio files to prove that the offloaded functionality was behaving as expected. Further measurements indicated that the goal of freeing up significant processing power on the main processor had also been achieved.
"Analysis of the profile of this audio application indicated that the execution time was spent fairly evenly across more than 200 software functions, making it impossible to achieve the project goals in a reasonable timeframe through a traditional manual approach," commented David Stewart, CEO, CriticalBlue. "Consequently, the flow we have proved from Cascade into Synplify Pro® can give design teams confidence that solutions exists which allow them to deal with the increasing use and complexity of embedded software."
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 sectors. It's Cascade tool 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 executable software code and automatically generating an appropriate hardware coprocessor, designed to accelerate tasks originally targeted at a general-purpose microprocessor. For more information, visit www.criticalblue.com.
About Synplicity
Synplicity® Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNP) is a leading supplier of innovative synthesis, verification and physical implementation software solutions that enable the rapid and effective design and verification of semiconductors. Synplicity's high-quality, high-performance tools significantly reduce costs and time-to-market for FPGA, structured/platform ASIC and cell-based/COT ASIC designers. The company's underlying Behavior Extracting Synthesis Technology® (BEST™), which is embedded in its logical, physical and verification tools, and has led to Synplicity's top position in FPGA synthesis, now provides the same fast runtimes and quality of results to ASIC and COT customers. The company's fast, easy-to-use products support industry standard design languages (VHDL and Verilog) and run on popular platforms. Synplicity employs over 280 people in its 20 facilities worldwide. Synplicity is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information visit www.synplicity.com.
For more information, please contact:
David Stewart
CriticalBlue
+1 408 467 5091
Leslie Cumming
Skye Marketing Communications
+ 1 415 285 2352