Ricoh Adopts EVE's ZeBu to Enable ESL Co-Emulation for Early Development of Embedded Software

ZeBu Enables Fast, Bug-free RTL Reuse with Synopsys-based Virtual Prototypes

SAN JOSE, CALIF. –– July 12, 2012 –– EVE, the leader in hardware/software co-verification, today announced that Ricoh Company, Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan, has selected its ZeBu hardware-assisted verification platform to accelerate its application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and system-on-chip (SoC) development.

ZeBu systems are being combined with Synopsys® Virtualizer™-based virtual prototypes to create a co-emulation environment that enables early embedded software development.

The increase in size and complexity of SoC designs, along with escalating software content associated with these chips and target systems, has become a critical issue for Ricoh. To speed software development, Ricoh implemented a co-emulation methodology with the ability to combine existing register transfer level (RTL) blocks with virtual models of the design.  For example, Ricoh was able to compile the RTL for its design’s graphics processor unit (GPU) into a ZeBu emulator and link with minimal effort to a Virtualizer-based virtual prototype containing system-level models of the CPU cores, buses and other logic.  This approach saved the time and effort of creating models of pre-existing design blocks, accelerating the start of Ricoh’s software development cycle.   

“The combination of ZeBu and Virtualizer enabled us to start the development and validation of driver software for the GPU five months ahead of the original schedule,” states Naoya Morita of Ricoh’s CH Development Center, Controller Development Division. “We also deployed the same environment for the development of GPU application software, as well as for OS boot development. On the OS boot development, we saw similar benefits as those we got in the GPU case.”

Kazuhiro Takazawa of the CH Development Center, Controller Development Division at Ricoh Company, Ltd., is in charge of development of the GPU driver and application software. He notes: “We found the Virtualizer/ZeBu development environment was extremely effective. We did not have to perform any adjustments in the Virtualizer-based virtual prototype nor in the ZeBu software to get a high return on investment.”

“By supporting industry standard SystemC TLM-2.0 interfaces, EVE’s co-emulation technology for ZeBu helps enable the reuse of existing IP with transaction-level models,” said Nithya A. Ruff, director of Synopsys’ Virtualizer product marketing. “This approach enables design teams to more quickly take advantage of virtual prototypes for pre-silicon software development and software-driven verification.”

“We are delighted by the successful deployment of ZeBu flow with Synopsys’ Virtualizer in a production design environment,” adds Luc Burgun, EVE’s chief executive officer and president. “The results reported by Ricoh are proof of the value of our ESL co-emulation platform.”

About EVE

EVE is the worldwide leader in hardware/software co-verification solutions, offering fast transaction-based co-emulation and in-circuit emulation, with installations at five of the top six semiconductor companies. EVE products shorten the overall verification cycle of complex integrated circuits and electronic systems designs, and can be integrated with transaction-level ESL tools and software debuggers, target hardware systems, as well as Verilog, SystemVerilog and VHDL simulators. EVE is a member of OCP-IP, the MIPI Alliance and Si2, along with ARM, Mentor Graphics, Real Intent, Springsoft and Synopsys Partner programs. Its United States headquarters is located in San Jose, Calif. Corporate headquarters is in Wissous, France. Other offices are located in India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Tunisia. Visit EVE online at:  www.eve-team.com.