Cadence Design Systems has launched the Cadence Helium Virtual and Hybrid Studio, a platform that expedites the production of virtual and hybrid prototypes of complex systems. The Helium Studio facilitates early software bring-up for hardware-software co-verification and co-debug, gives comprehensive support for platform assembly, allows the creation and debug of virtual models and supplies a rich library of pre-built virtual models and hybrid adapters. Employing the system, verification with a virtual or hybrid model of the SoC is not just orders of magnitude faster than verification with a pure RTL model, it allows early software bring-up before the RTL is available.
Architected to natively combine with the Cadence verification engines, including the Palladium Z2 Enterprise Emulation Platform, the Protium X2 Enterprise Prototyping Platform and Xcelium Logic Simulator, the new Helium Studio expedites system development by verifying embedded software/firmware on pure virtual and hybrid configurations even when the RTL is not ready.
Engineers producing next-generation designs, including for mobile, automotive and hyperscale computing applications, require to validate software on a pre-silicon platform to ensure design success and to satisfy time-to-market schedules. The Helium Studio enables designers to create high-quality virtual and hybrid SoC models. Through the native integration of the runtime software engine with the Helium Studio, the Palladium Z2 platform and the Protium X2 platform, it gives software developers a uniform debug experience from a virtual model to RTL.
“Validating embedded software concurrently with RTL and earlier in the development process is critical to ensuring the success of next-generation mobile, automotive and hyperscale SoC designs,” said Paul Cunningham, senior vice president and general manager of the System and Verification Group at Cadence. “Our new Helium Studio takes advantage of our best-in-class verification engines, including the Palladium and Protium dynamic duo, to enable fast software development and benchmarking for power and performance validation. This new system provides designers with a unified platform that accelerates overall verification throughput.”
The new software is part of the wider company verification full flow, including Palladium Z2 emulation, Protium X2 prototyping, Xcelium simulation, the JasperGold Formal Verification Platform, and the vManager Verification Management Platform. The verification full flow provides the highest verification throughput of bugs per dollar invested per day of schedule. The Helium Studio and verification full flow support the company’s Intelligent System Design strategy, facilitating system innovation.