SIDSA announces the "ADAC" ARM Automobile Design Platform for SoC Development Validation

Fast ARM SoC prototyping environment for hardware and software on an emulation board.

Tres Cantos, Spain, February 10,2002 - SIDSA - Semiconductor Design Solutions, a leading European provider of SoC design services and multimedia products, today announced the ARM Design platform for Automotive on CARMeN code named "ADAC". Based on SIDSA's industry proven "CARMeN" ARM emulation board, it allows fast prototyping of ARM-based ASICs with peripherals such as CAN bus USB and UART with real co-verification of software including porting of RTOS such as OSEK.

Overview
Today, the ARM7TDMI 16/32 bit core is increasingly used in automobile applications either as a standard microcontroller or as a custom chip or "ASIC". Originally conceived for mobile telecom applications, the advantages high performance with reduced energy consumption, small silicon area and low memory requirements are a good fit in the extreme cost sensitive automobile world. Although component designers are interested in developments of ARM based custom ASICs or SoC (System on Chip) the development costs are high and a new set of skills are required for the design of the hardware and embedded software development.

Solutions
SIDSA is an established ASIC design house with 10 years of experience and 5 years knowledge of ARM design. As a certified ARM ATAP design centre, SIDSA has the necessary skills for both hardware and embedded firmware development. Rather than relying only on simulation, ARM based designs are mapped into SIDSA's own "CARMeN" emulation boards allowing fast debugging and validation in the target environment.
For automobile applications, rather than reinventing the wheel, SIDSA provides a proven structure which includes the ARM system bus and peripherals such as the Bosch CAN Bus, USB, UART and other peripheral functions. This means the hardware designer only has to concentrate on the remaining tasks of implementing the required logical functions for engine control, security algorithm, infotainment etc.
Using low-cost FPGA synthesis and routing tools, the hardware design is mapped into the single FPGA (Xilinx Virtex or Altera Apex) and the compiled ARM program downloaded into memory. The prototype of the final ASIC can be fully debugged in the target environment and RTOS such as OSEK can be run on the prototyped hardware. Software / Hardware partitioning decisions can be evaluated and the software fully debugged.
When the decision is taken to product the ASIC, the same netlist can be given to a design house such as SIDSA to make the ASIC. As the ARM core is available in most silicon foundries, the decision to choose the component supplier can be taken at the end of the development cycle. SIDSA's "ADAC" development platform also includes testbenches and ASIC synthesis scripts.

Availability
- Proven design flow
- Complete Design Platform (emulation board + ARM system bus + peripherals + CAN + USB + UART + simulation test bench + synthesis script)
- Optional RTOS porting services
- CARMeN ARM SoC emulation board available separately

Contact Details

TRIAS Mikroelektronik GmbH (Design Services representative)
Moerser Landstr.408
D-47802 Krefeld
Germany
Tf. +49 (0) 2151/95301-55
Fax. +49 (0) 2151/95301-15
mailto:uwe.stock @trias-mikro.de
http://www.trias-mikro.de
Contact person: Uwe Stock