Archive for August, 2008

With the Beijing Olympics behind us, I’m reminded that interoperability is a team sport, and there are many winners in a standards game.  Eight years ago, Synopsys (my boss, actually) conceived of an award for companies who put forth extra effort towards making interoperability a reality.  This “gold medal” would recognize those whose endeavors might otherwise be taken for granted.  We named it the Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award after the Sherpa who was one of the first people known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, along with the famous Sir Edmund Hillary. The name is appropriate not only because interoperability brings IC design productivity to new heights, but also because interoperability is necessary yet sometimes forgotten.

I found that other organizations have also created Tenzing Norgay awards.  For instance, the government of India has a Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award which recognizes people in fields of adventure (i.e., outdoor activities).  This award encourages people to develop “endurance, risk-taking, cooperative teamwork and quick, ready and effective reflexes in challenging situations”.   Sounds like standards, doesn’t it?

You might have seen press releases over the years announcing the Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award winners or attended events that feature their accomplishments.  And you may be wondering why Synopsys gives an award for interoperability which is clearly an industry-wide topic. There’s an interesting story behind this.  We originally envisioned that the award would come from the EDA Consortium, sponsored by its Interoperability Committee.  We proposed the award to the Consortium’s board of directors, and we were surprised when they declined to be its owner.  Apparently, the award was too controversial! 

Undaunted, we decided to own the Tenzing Norgay award ourselves because we saw value in recognizing the work of other companies.  At first, giving an award to a competitor felt a bit strange, but we knew that it demonstrated the essence of the award.  Working with other companies, competitors or not, is a prerequisite to interoperability.

Here are the recipients of the Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award:

2008: IPL Alliance – Ciranova, SpringSoft, TSMC

2007: UPF Founding Team – Nokia, Texas Instruments, Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics

2006: Electronic Tools Company

2005: ARM

2004: Novas Software

2003: Silicon Metrics

2002: Mentor Graphics

2001: CoWare 

If you’d like to nominate a company for a future Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award, please visit our site for more information.

 

 

EDA standards blog The Standards Game
Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay award

In this week’s SCDSource article by Richard Goering, “Mentor, Cadence VMM support may boost VIP interoperability”, Cadence states they support VMM.  With all 3 of the big 3 EDA vendors (Cadence, Mentor, and Synopsys) supporting VMM, I think it’s safe to say that VMM is well-accepted in the industry.  ‘Nuff said.
EDA standards blog The Standards Game
VMM Verification Methodology Manual open verification methodology
VMM OVM open standards verification standards

Here’s a bit of fun in the standards game. Guess who is supporting VMM, Synopsys’ verification methodology? None other than Mentor Graphics! Mentor’s support for VMM is no longer a best-kept secret.

I expect they were able to make good use of the open source VMM, Synopsys’ donation of VMM to Accellera, or both. 

Of course, Mentor is still advertising their original AVM and the new OVM, which they created with Cadence. Yet, it’s encouraging from an industry interoperability view to see Mentor supporting VMM for their customers. Plus, Mentor is a very active participant in the Accellera VIP verification standards committee where the VMM donation resides. I’d venture to say that despite all the posturing, Mentor’s support of VMM demonstrates the solidity and broad industry acceptance of VMM.

EDA standards blog The Standards Game
VMM OVM open standards verification standards
Verification Methodology Manual open verification methodology

The balloting group for IEEE P1450.6.1 is being formed now. Now is the time for interested companies and organizations to join the group of balloters. The deadline for signing up to ballot is August 30, 2008, 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

This important standard for IC test is titled “Standard for Describing On-Chip Scan Compression” and is also known as the Open Compression Interface (OCI). It was created within the Accellera standards-setting organization and was transferred to the IEEE following Accellera’s ratification.

OCI defines how information is passed from scan insertion to pattern generation and from pattern generation to diagnosis, allowing tools from different vendors to be used regardless of what on-chip scan compression logic is used. It describes on-chip scan compression structures, operation, and connectivity which promote EDA tool interoperability for pattern generation and diagnosis.

To join the ballot group, contact Penny Stanton, IEEE-SA Balloting Center Administrator, at: sa-ballot -at- ieee . org.

P1450.6.1 will be an entity-based ballot which means “one company – one vote”. This process offers freedom from blatant vote-stacking and promotes industry-relevant standards. If your company or organization is already a corporate member of the IEEE Standards Association, you can join the ballot group and ballot without paying a balloting fee. If your company or organization does not want to join the IEEE-SA, you can still join the ballot group and ballot by paying a per-ballot fee.

You can check to see if your company or organization is a corporate member or find out who is your corporate member representative by contacting Patti Sulzer (p . sulzer -at- ieee . org). An IEEE-SA Corporate Member list is also available at: http://standards.ieee.org/sa-mem/corpmemlist.html

If your organization is not an IEEE-SA Corporate Member, but wishes to participate in this ballot, follow these instructions to become a member: http://standards.ieee.org/sa-mem/join.html#corporate

If your organization prefers to pay the per-ballot fee, please contact Penny Stanton, IEEE-SA Balloting Center Administrator, at: sa-ballot -at- ieee . org.

Once P1450.6.1 completes the balloting process and gains approval from IEEE-SA governance, the “P” will be dropped and it will become an official IEEE P1450.6.1 standard.