SpringSoft delivers breakthrough productivity with third generation chip debug platform

HSINCHU, TAIWAN: SpringSoft Inc. unveiled the third generation of its market-leading debug automation software. The new Verdi3 product is an open platform that introduces user personalization, customization, and enhanced interoperability to create a powerful debug cockpit, and is built on a next-generation software architecture for significant performance and capacity gains.

In order to keep pace with the increasing complexity and size of digital ICs, as well as the sophisticated methodologies used to verify them, existing debug solutions must be re-tooled to maximize user productivity and better reflect the way engineers work in evolving functional verification environments.

SpringSoft’s Verdi3 Automated Debug Platform addresses these requirements by delivering a two-fold performance increase with 30 percent smaller files than the previous generation, and enabling users to personalize the debug environment and seamlessly integrate custom applications created with the Verdi Interoperable Apps (VIA) platform for rapid and reliable deployment.

“For more than a decade, Springsoft has continuously delivered innovative technologies that enable engineers to do more debug in less time ─ first with independent, design knowledge-based tools, and then next as an integrated system with critical behavioral analysis, assertion and system testbench debug, and power-aware debug automation,” said Mark Milligan, VP of corporate marketing for SpringSoft. “Our third generation platform is compelling because teams can now tailor the debug environment around how they work and take advantage of increased debug performance and scalability to handle even larger, more complex designs.”

Verdi software has been the choice for debug by tens of thousands of engineers worldwide. It cuts debug time in half by accelerating the comprehension of complex IP components, design modules and entire SoC design behavior. The highly automated system is built on a unified ‘design knowledge’ architecture with specialized databases, analysis engines and visualization tools that help analyze cause-and-effect relationships and reveal the functional interaction between the design, power intent, assertions and system testbench.

Third generation debug platform
With the new Verdi3 software, SpringSoft upgraded the underlying structure of its de facto industry standard fast signal database (FSDB) to both improve the raw speed of data retrieval and provide more efficient access mechanisms across the debug platform. Advancements include multi-threaded FSDB reader, new FSDB 5.0 format with compact file size, and parallel dumping of logic simulation results.

In addition, a new robust SystemVerilog (Verilog-2009)-compliant language parser optimizes performance during SystemVerilog design and testbench debug operations with better error handling and multi-threaded incremental save capabilities that reduce compile time and memory utilization by as much as 30 percent and 75 percent, respectively.

SpringSoft has also rewritten the ‘look and feel’ of the Verdi3 environment with an entirely new Qt-based graphical user interface (GUI) that puts engineers in the driver seat. They can choose to deploy the Verdi3 software directly out of the box, simply re-configure the layout of their Verdi3 desktop, or even build a custom cockpit for their SoC debug flows. Customizable toolbar, menu and hot key options provide a more natural fit with daily debug tasks.

Additionally, new windows provide simultaneous access to multiple source files during debug operations, while ‘spotlight search’ enables faster, more efficient navigation of Verdi3 commands and features. Engineers can personalize the Verdi3 layout and debug modes for the way they want to work, while saving their preferences for the next or all future sessions.

For Verdi3 users, customization includes the ability to change or create the functions and capabilities available to them as they go through the debug process. The new platform simplifies GUI-enabled integration of proprietary commands, third-party tools, and custom applications created by users of SpringSoft’s VIA Exchange.

Engineers can traverse the Verdi3 design knowledge database, display relevant information, and execute VIA scripts directly from the GUI with seamless interoperability. Launched in October 2011, the VIA Exchange provides open interfaces to the Verdi database and software infrastructure, which makes it easy for internal CAD teams and external parties to develop reusable Verdi3 programs and utilities for their specific tool and design flow requirements.