Date: 17/04/2009

NXP employs Mentor Graphics' emulator for verification of its HDTV and STB devices

NXP Semiconductor has adopted the hardware emulator tool called Veloce platform from Mentor Graphics for the complete system-level verification of its next generation of digital Systems-on-Chip (SoC) for High-Definition TV (HDTV) and Set-Top-Box (STB).

"NXP continues to drive system-level integration to provide advanced solutions to our customer," said Shanthi Padmanabhan, vice president and innovation and technology manager of the home business unit, NXP Semiconductors. "Pre- and post-silicon testing of our SoCs requires a massive number of verification cycles to validate functionality and avoid design flaws. The use of Veloce for hardware-assisted verification has played an important role for NXP to achieve high speed verification and testing required. This ultimately enables us to beat our tight schedules in a highly-competitive market. NXP is the first to introduce a global single chip digital TV platform on 45nm, TV550, which enables high end TV features in mainstream TVs."

Mentor Graphics claims, The Veloce platform is the industry's fastest dual-mode Accelerator/Emulator available, providing MHz performance for both transaction-based verification and traditional in-circuit emulation (ICE).

For testing and verifying SoC semiconductor devices with so much of RF and mixed signal capabilities, EDA tools need to be far more robust than the silicon to ensure the success of the product. That's where leading EDA vendors have edge over other small EDA companies.