WIND--Triscend and Wind River Deliver Advanced Debug Solution
for ARM-based A7 CSoC
Best-of-Class Software Tools visionPROBE II and visionCLICK
Adapted for Debugging A7’s Embedded Programmable Logic
Please refer to the related document:
Triscend Delivers Industry's First 32-bit CSoC Family
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - August 28, 2000 - Triscend Corporation, the leading provider of Configurable System-on-Chip (CSoC) devices for the communications market, today introduced an advanced debug solution for Triscend’s ARM7TDMI-based A7TM CSoC device family to help customers speed their product development cycle and achieve faster time-to-market. Wind River (Nasdaq: WIND) and Triscend have extended the firmware and software debugging functionality of Wind River’s visionPROBE II and visionCLICK to yield the most comprehensive debugging solution for the CSoC class of devices. Together, Triscend and Wind River provide A7 customers with the most innovative and productive toolset available today for CSoC-based embedded designs.
By addressing the range of development needs from debugging custom logic in the CSoC to deploying application software within one common environment, visionPROBE II and visionCLICK have become a toolset that an entire development team can share for the whole product development process. Furthermore, visionPROBE II and visionCLICK leverage the A7’s advanced on-chip debug infrastructure to provide users with unprecedented levels of device observability and control.
"To fulfill the time-to-market promise of our CSoC technology, we have to provide our customers not only with silicon but also an eco-system that supports the silicon, including the best-of-class embedded development tools from Wind River," said Stanley Yang, president and CEO of Triscend. "By partnering with Wind River, we provide customers with an unbeatable combination for fast time-to-market - industry-leading tools and highly integrated, user-configurable CSoC devices."
"Wind River is committed to bringing leading edge software solutions to our customers. By adapting our visionPROBE II and visionCLICK technology for the world’s first 32-bit CSoC device, Triscend offers developers a valuable debugging solution," said Peter Dawson, vice president and general manager of Wind River’s Hardware/Software Integration business unit. "For configurable devices like the A7, debugging the chip design is a natural extension of our existing firmware and software debugging capabilities. This new ‘chip bring-up’ capability will let us serve an entirely new customer base and help the whole development team to work closer together within one seamless environment throughout the entire development process."
Advanced Debugging Improves Time-to-Market
Triscend architected its CSoC devices to enable fast time-to-market. As an alternative to creating custom ASICs, often costly and time consuming to produce, Triscend’s CSoC devices let users customize without compromising their time-to-market requirements. Using Triscend’s FastChip software and EDA tools, customers can create processor derivatives by implementing their custom logic in the CSoC device’s embedded programmable logic. Key to a quick design turnaround is the ability to perform exhaustive in-system verification and debugging of the entire design, while a CSoC device is running a real world application. This calls for a new kind of debugging environment that can provide visibility and control at the logic level in addition to the processor level, all in one environment. Within visionCLICK’s user-friendly environment, logic designers can access and control the whole device, down to every signal in the embedded programmable logic. Firmly established as the board bring-up tools of choice by embedded firmware developers, Wind River’s tool suite, including visionPROBE II and visionCLICK are now expanding into the "chip bring-up" stage of hardware development.
Each A7 design represents a unique derivative of an ARM7TDMI-based system-on-chip, with its own register set and custom logic in the embedded programmable logic. Furthermore, as a design evolves, a device’s hardware profile changes. To address these fundamental characteristics of CSoC designs, visionCLICK’s user interface is dynamically reconfigured to reflect each design’s unique hardware profile, providing device and design specific information critical for productivity.
More Debugging at Less Cost
The A7 boasts an advanced on-chip debug infrastructure that includes a JTAG interface and a hardware breakpoint unit, providing unprecedented levels of observability and controllability of the entire CSoC device. Built to be accessible, A7’s on-chip debug infrastructure allows users to observe and control not only the ARM core, but also the internal buses and all on-chip peripherals. Critical to debugging logic designs, users can also access the nets and signals, down to every wire, in the embedded programmable logic. Because of the on-chip debug infrastructure and the embedded debug capabilities, these advanced debug features are accessible through visionPROBE II and visionCLICK without additional cost to customers.
Traditionally, advanced debugging capabilities such as complex breakpoints and event trace are only available by using additional external support hardware, such as an in-circuit emulator. A7’s advanced breakpoint unit and on-chip trace buffers make it possible to perform advanced event trace just with visionPROBE II, thereby dramatically lowering the cost of such advanced debug features.
Tools for the Whole Team to Speed Product Development
By extending visionPROBE II and visionCLICK’s debug capabilities into the logic design stage, Wind River and Triscend make it possible for an entire development team to share the same tools, therefore lowering the learning curve and increasing productivity. Custom logic designers can start logic design with Triscend’s FastChip software and EDA tools. Each logic design can be downloaded into a CSoC device through the visionPROBE II cable for in-system verification and debugging using FastChip and visionCLICK. Once the hardware design is finalized, visionCLICK can be reconfigured to reflect the unique device profile of the CSoC design, giving the firmware and software engineers the necessary information to develop and debug firmware and application software. By providing one common tool for everyone on the team, the traditional departmental "walls" that impede product development can be broken, allowing even faster product development and reduced time-to-market.
Pricing and Availability
Customers can evaluate the A7 and prototype CSoC designs using the Triscend A7 Development Kit, which will be available in Q4’00 through Triscend’s distributors worldwide and priced at $1,495. The A7 Development Kit will include the Triscend A7 Evaluation Board, a fully licensed version of the Triscend FastChip software, the visionPROBE II debug cable and an evaluation version of visionCLICK. Additional visionPROBE II cables and full visionCLICK licenses can be purchased directly from Wind River.
About Triscend
Triscend Corporation is the leading provider of Configurable System-on-Chip (CSoC) devices - a single-chip combination of a dedicated industry-standard microprocessor, embedded programmable logic, a dedicated system bus, and memory. Targeted at the communications market, Triscend CSoC devices, along with the FastChipTM Software Development System, fill the gap between fully custom system-on-chips and application specific standard products, providing the next level of integration, time-to-market and programmability. Founded in 1997, Triscend is privately held and venture capital funded and is headquartered in Mountain View, CA. More information on Triscend is available at www.triscend.com or by calling (650) 968-8668.
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Editor Notes:
Triscend, E5, FastChip, and Configurable System-on-Chip for Communications are trademarks of Triscend Corporation. Synopsys is a registered trademark. All other products and brands are the property of their respective holders.
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