Press Release
Date: March 6th, 2006
Source: Novas
Novas and Altera Collaborate on Bringing Benefits of New Visibility Enhancement Technology to FPGAs
New Siloti products to integrate with Altera’s Quartus II development software to enhance design comprehension and debug of programmable chips
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 6, 2006 — Novas Software, Inc., the leader in design comprehension solutions for complex chips, today announced that it has joined the Altera ACCESS Program for integrating and supporting complementary design technology. The companies are collaborating to increase signal visibility for easier debugging of complex systems on a programmable chip (SOPC) and FPGA-based product prototypes.
The two companies will initially work together on the interoperability between the Quartus II development software’s SignalTap II embedded logic analyzer and the new Siloti™ Visibility Enhancement (VE) products introduced separately today by Novas. The SignalTap II embedded logic analyzer is a system-level debugging tool that allows designers to observe signal data via gate-level probes. The Novas Siloti SilVE™ product optimizes the visibility of the signal data by determining the essential set of probe points required, and then expands and correlates the data to provide full visibility of all internal signals at the register transfer level (RTL) for debug. The combination of these capabilities will replace guesswork and multiple analysis-debug iterations with a predictable, high visibility debug methodology.
“Given the increasingly sophisticated capabilities of FPGAs, which are used as platforms for both prototype and volume production, designers must be able to quickly gain insight into how a device is functioning,” said James Smith, Altera’s director of EDA vendor relations. “Novas’ Siloti product enhances the Altera in-system debug solution through its ability to expand the number of viewable signals and enables designers to debug in their familiar RTL environments. We welcome the addition of Novas’ expertise and innovative technology for the benefit of our mutual customers.”
“Limited visibility into design behavior during prototyping and validation of FPGA-based systems makes silicon debug time-consuming, costly and very unpredictable,” said Scott Sandler, president and CEO at Novas. “We are very excited to be working with Altera to address this critical challenge. By utilizing the synergy of our respective technologies, we can put FPGA designers and verification engineers on the fast track to understanding and fixing design problems.”
About Altera ACCESS Program
Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) is the world’s pioneer in system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions. Combining programmable logic technology with software tools, intellectual property and technical services, Altera provides high-value programmable solutions to approximately 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at www.altera.com.
The Altera® Commitment to Cooperative Engineering Solutions (ACCESS) ProgramTM ensures that Altera customers have a solid design methodology to develop their FPGA and structured ASIC designs. ACCESS Program partners are highly committed to continual product support aligned with Altera's product roadmap.
About Novas
Novas Software, Inc. is the leading provider of design comprehension solutions for engineers designing complex ICs, embedded systems and SoCs. Novas’ Verdi automated debug and Siloti visibility enhancement products dramatically accelerate the process for understanding and correcting design problems starting from system-level specification through silicon implementation. Novas is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. with offices in Europe, Japan and Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit www.novas.com or email info@novas.com.