ARM è perfettamente a conoscenza che il basso costo delle licenze non è l'unico elemento di forza della propria offerta. Le aziende fabless, generalmente, scelgono ARM perché si è in grado di realizzare un SoC completamente custom, in tempi ragionevolmente brevi e a costi non astronomici, grazie ad una serie di tool ben studiati.
La casa inglese ieri ha presentato questi tool in versione aggiornata, attraverso i quali sarà possibile migliorare e velocizzare ulteriormente la fase di disegno di un SoC: “ARM advances its mission to enable SoC designers to configure, create and assemble IP-based systems over the course of days rather than months with today's announcement of a new suite of IP tools”.
Questi miglioramenti si vanno ad aggiungere alle già numerose partnership che ARM ha in essere con le varie fonderie Pure-Play (Qui un esempio), le quali permettono un'ulteriore velocizzazione dell'immissione sul mercato del prodotto (in gergo, Time To Market) per le aziende Fabless.
Qui di seguito il comunicato stampa di ARM.
Cambridge, UK, Jun. 03, 2015 - ARM advances its mission to enable SoC designers to configure, create and assemble IP-based systems over the course of days rather than months with today's announcement of a new suite of IP tools. The new IP tooling suite comprises Socrates DE, CoreSight Creator and CoreLink Creator. Additionally, CoreLink Creator will easily configure and help implement the new CoreLink NIC-450 Network Interconnect, the follow-on to the widely-adopted CoreLink NIC-400.
The new suite addresses the most complex challenges associated with SoC configurability and assembly while reducing time to market. Examples of efficiency gains include:
- An 8x improvement in assembly schedule - based on project metrics from an ARM project to build a 64-bit ARM big.LITTLE™ reference platform
- Configuration of an ARM Cortex®-A72 processor in seconds
- Effortless management of 100,000+ lines of connection metadata per IP.
"Our partners need to deliver ARM-based SoCs to market as fast and accurately as possible," said James McNiven, general manager, systems and software group, ARM. "In the process of building our own reference designs, we saw our IP configuration, creation and assembly schedules go from projections of months to days thanks to Socrates DE and the CoreSight and CoreLink Creators. Our lead partners are now using ARM IP tooling in concert with ARM and third-party IP to assemble intelligent subsystems faster than ever."
ARM Socrates DE: simplifying the SoC development process
Socrates DE delivers ARM's most advanced IP design environment to date, offering configuration, creation and assembly of ARM and third-party IP. Socrates DE equips architects and designers with a wide range of capabilities:
- The same design environment used within ARM
- Built-in ARM design knowledge such as ARM AMBA® protocols
- A platform to standardize any IP into the industry-standard IP-XACT format
- A built-in IP catalog supporting ARM and third-party IP
- The ability to differentiate on top of ARM IP while maintaining design integrity.
ARM CoreSight and CoreLink Creators: accelerating system IP design
CoreSight and CoreLink Creators, which are built on Socrates technology, further enable architects and designers with several configuration efficiencies:
- The same IP creation environment used within ARM
- Built-in ARM design rule checks
- Guided creation of a high-level specification for Coresight or Corelink IP
- Automated microarchitecture creation
- Auto-generated right-first-time RTL and IP-XACT
- Seamless integration with Socrates DE.
On-chip communication leadership
The new CoreLink NIC-450 Network Interconnect offers a tool-driven automation flow that employs algorithms for tasks such as ensuring deadlock-free operation and partitioning across multiple power/voltage domains. The highly configurable, multi-power-domain CoreLink NIC-450 is most easily configured and deployed via the CoreLink Creator tool. The CoreLink Creator tool enables CoreLink NIC-450 to be optimized to suit the requirements of a complex SoC using AMBA protocols, the industry's de facto standard for on-chip communication.
Availability
Socrates DE and CoreSight Creator are available now for immediate licensing. CoreLink Creator and CoreLink NIC-450 will be available for delivery in 2H'15. Find out more about ARM's commitment to simplifying and accelerating the process of system integration by visiting ARM booth #2414 at the upcoming DAC show, June 7-11 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.