Avery Design Systems Announces SATA Express AHCI Verification IP Solution

ANDOVER, MA., August 12, 2013 – Avery Design Systems Inc., a leader in verification IP (VIP), today announced availability of its SATA Express/AHCI verification IP targeting the PCIe-based SSD market. SATA-Xactor extends Avery’s portfolio of storage-related VIP which also includes SATA, NVM Express, SCSI Express (SOP/PQI), Universal Flash Storage (UFS), eMMC, SD, and USB Attached SCSI (UASP).

SATA Express enables an ecosystem for client storage in which SATA and PCIe solutions can coexist, providing a low-cost solution to fully utilize the performance of next generation solid state drives (SSDs) and hybrid drives.

SATA-Xactor is a complete verification solution for SATA Express AHCI HBA controller IP and system design. SATA-Xactor allows design and verification engineers to quickly and extensively test the functionality of SATA Express controller-based designs. The SATA-Xactor solution includes:

• AHCI host software BFM
• Host and controller bus adaptor
• Reference SATA Express controller (PCIe/AHCI HBA) and adaptor for emulating SCSI targets
• Compliance testsuite
• Comprehensive protocol checks
• Protocol analyzer tracker
• Functional coverage model
• Works with any PCIe and AXI IP or VIP

SATA-Xactor works in conjunction with Avery’s leading PCI-Xactor PCI Express Verification IP solution to supply a complete SATA Express subsystem verification environment. A SATA Express bus adaptor layer enables the SATA Express host software BFM to hook up to any bus interface such as PCIe and AMBA AXI and enables running the SATA Express host software BFM with or without the PCIe root complex and endpoint IP stacks yielding faster simulation performance for large data movement in both SATA Express core-level and SOC-level verification environments. A reference SATA Express controller supports core-level verification by emulating the NAND Flash backend subsystem.

Models and compliance testsuites are developed in SystemVerilog and support UVM, OVM, and VMM environments.

“Avery is focused on delivering industry leading VIP for the rapidly emerging SSD and other storage-related standards built on top of PCIe, USB, and UniPro base protocols”, says Chilai Huang, president of Avery Design Systems. “Our solution enables designers to thoroughly verify their designs functionally adhere to the new SATA Express standard and effectively pinpoint areas of non-compliance or performance bottlenecks.”

Visit us at the Flash Memory Summit held on August 13-15 in booth #826.

About Avery Design Systems

Founded in 1999, Avery Design Systems, Inc. enables system and SOC design teams to achieve dramatic functional verification productivity improvements through the use of formal analysis applications for automatic property and coverage generation and RT-level and gate-level X verification; robust core-through-chip-level Verification IP for PCI Express, USB, AMBA, UFS, MIPI, DDR/LPDDR, NVM Express, SCSI Express, SATA Express, eMMC, and SD/SDIO standards. The company is a member of the Mentor Graphics Value Added Partnership (VAP) program and has established numerous Avery Design VIP partner program affiliations with leading IP suppliers. More information about the company may be found at www.avery-design.com.