The Week In Review: Design

M&A
MIPS has reportedly been acquired again, this time by AI startup Wave Computing. Wave focuses on data center-based neural network training using its parallel dataflow processing architecture. In March, the company signed on to use 64-bit multi-threaded processor cores from MIPS in future projects. Previously, MIPS was owned by Tallwood Venture Capital, which acquired MIPS from Imagination last year for $65 million while Imagination itself was in the process of being acquired by Chinese-backed VC firm Canyon Bridge. Tallwood has previously made investments in Wave. Terms of this deal were not disclosed.

Tools & IP
Baum launched the latest version of its power modeling and analysis solution. PowerBaum generates power models by automatically learning and abstracting power behavior, and the new release includes links to hardware emulation to analyze and fix power issues in realistic software scenarios as well as the ability to specify arbitrary temperatures for power analysis. Additionally, a new product is available for analyzing gate-level power.

Breker Verification Systems debuted the latest version of its testbench and test synthesis tool suite for UVM and SoC verification flows. The new version is compliant with the soon-to-be-released Accellera Portable Stimulus Standard version 1.0 Domain Specific Language (DSL) as well as the PSS C++ Format. New features include support for an extended native C++ mode and a visual editor GUI that allows scenario models to be drawn as graphs automatically generating PSS code, along with an updated test map and graph viewers.

Mentor’s Veloce Strato hardware emulation platform is now available as a cloud emulation platform accessible on-demand through Amazon Web Services. Softnautics conducted initial pilot projects to validate the use model of Veloce on AWS.

CAST uncorked a JPEG-LS Decoder IP core to accompany its JPEG-LS Encoder. The JPEG-LS cores offer a higher or comparable compression ratio compared to PNG and JPEG 2000 with sub-millisecond latency in a smaller footprint than JPEG 2000.

Synopsys released new versions of its lighting design products. LightTools, for modeling and analysis of illumination optics, added manufacturability prediction features for precision applications such as LED-based light guides and LiDAR. Automotive lighting product LucidShape added luminance region analysis and a fixed random seed option for Monte Carlo ray tracing simulations.

Standards
Accellera approved the SystemC Configuration, Control and Inspection (CCI) 1.0 standard. The goal of SystemC CCI is to provide greater interoperability among SystemC tools and models from different providers through the use of standard interfaces. The first release focuses on a standard model configuration, and the roadmap includes checkpointing and register introspection.

Deals & Certifications
Cambricon Technologies licensed NetSpeed’s interconnect IP for use in its next generation AI-focused SoCs, citing scalability of the IP and the ability to configure sophisticated topologies.

Samsung Foundry certified Synopsys’ Design Platform and IC Validator signoff product for its 7nm Low Power Plus (LPP) process with EUV. The Design Platform supports EUV single-exposure-based routing and via stapling. Signoff-certified runsets, including DRC, LVS, and metal fill technology files, are now available.