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Test and Verification Solutions Limited (T&VS) Provide STMicroelectronics with SoC Verification Services.

T&VS are pleased to announce that STMicroelectronics (R&D) Limited (ST) has extended a team of nine SoC verification engineers supplied by T&VS on a managed service basis to provide verification services for ST’s Unified Platform Division.

T&VS provided ST in Bristol with a team of verification engineers and the team ensured that ST were able to meet challenging product release schedules. The T&VS team worked on the verification of a complex multi-core set-top box SoC. The T&VS team made use of low level embedded software to test the integration of design IP and system functions such as interrupts, complex reset mechanisms and sophisticated power management. T&VS was selected for their proven experience in verification and ready access to qualified staff.

ST had a number of options when considering how to resource the original project including the recruitment of individual contractors and using off-site development. ST preferred the T&VS option of a managed service, with T&VS supplying all the engineers required in a managed team. The managed team was structured to provide well defined points of contact and communication to minimize the management time and maximize the efficiency of the technical communication. This meant a much reduced overhead for ST in terms of recruitment and management of the team.

T&VS also took full responsibility for ramping up the team. After initial training of the first T&VS staff by ST, T&VS then trained the rest of the team as they arrived at the ST offices. T&VS also put in place a continuous improvement process and instigated a knowledge management system. This helped the T&VS team to better capture and share the learning amongst the team thereby reducing the dependency on the ST engineers. The captured knowledge was transferred to ST at the end of the first project to help improve internal documentation.

Mike Bartley, CEO of T&VS commented, “We were delighted to have the opportunity to work with ST on the first chip. It gave us the opportunity to demonstrate to ST that T&VS has the ability to supply a large team of verification engineers. But more than that, it showed that T&VS can ramp a team quickly and get them effective within a short space of time, with minimum disruption to the client.”

ST started seeing an improvement in their test status within a few weeks of the arrival of the first T&VS engineers, an important step in meeting the scheduled tape-out date. ST measured both the quality and the efficiency of the T&VS team and was happy with the results. On that basis ST decided to keep the T&VS team in place for their next chip. T&VS will again be providing verification services as well as DFT services for this chip.

Mike Bartley added, “The extension of our team at ST for verification of the next SoC demonstrates the confidence that ST has in T&VS.