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Panasonic Uses Mentor Tool for Algorithms
Written by Tracy Heffner
Thursday, 09 June 2005
WILSONVILLE, OR – Mentor Graphics Corp. reported that Panasonic Communications Co. has selected the Mentor Catapult C Synthesis tool for its algorithmic design. "During our evaluation, we found Catapult C's quality of results and ease-of-use to be very convincing," said Dr. Akitoshi Matsuda, Corporate Information Systems Group, Panasonic. "Using the tool, we are able to realize the benefits of algorithmic synthesis, which uses pure ANSI C++ system models as input. Algorithmic synthesis requires far less manual effort, allowing us to specify interfaces and hierarchy using constraints, and instantly target FPGA or ASIC implementations without changing the original pure C++ source." Panasonic designs application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) used in their voice, data and video communication systems. The company typically implements its algorithmic designs in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) prototype for real-time performance and functional validation before retargeting the design to an ASIC for production. The manual effort required to create register-transfer level (RTL) descriptions for both FPGA prototypes and ASICs leaves no time for design exploration. The Catapult C Synthesis tool is reportedly the only product to automatically create RTL from a pure ANSI C++ source where both the core algorithm and interface are untimed. This alleged productivity improvement gives designers time to perform detailed "what-if" analysis on varying micro-architecture and interface scenarios to quickly achieve fully optimized hardware designs for either FPGA or ASIC implementations. The tool creates RTL that can be synthesized into gates using standard RTL synthesis products, supposedly enabling it to fit within a wide variety of tool flows.
"Panasonic Communications is an expert in using high-level synthesis tools to achieve time-to-market and quality goals for network terminal products," Simon Bloch, general manager of Design Creation and Synthesis Division. "We are honored that such an outstanding company has selected Catapult C Synthesis as it deploys the benefits of algorithmic synthesis."
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