Carbon Design Systems Acquires SoC Designer from ARM
July 2008

Why was this partnership formed?

In order to meet the demands of its customers and partners, ARM has been supplying cycle-accurate models of its processors and peripheral components.  ARM recognizes that hand-writing cycle accurate models is not sustainable and has, therefore, partnered with Carbon.  As the industry leader in automatic model generation, Carbon is a natural partner to address this model generation task.

ARM will be transfering to Carbon the SoC Designer product, and will be workng with Carbon to provide cycle-accurate, implementation accurate models of ARM processors for use in customer's system validation efforts.

Why is Carbon acquiring SoC Designer?

SoC Designer is a complete cycle-accurate platform environment which provides a natural fit for the models generated by Carbon.  By acquiring SoC Designer, Carbon will be able to provide a seamless transition of support for existing customers and a fast, proven path for accurate models now and in the future. Many of Carbon's customers are already users of SoC Designer and so this is really a perfect fit.

How does this move benefit Carbon customers? 

This partnership enables Carbon to offer a complete solution for architectural exploration, pre-silicon firmware validation and secure IP delivery. By acquiring SoC Designer, Carbon will be able to guarantee continued availability for the most popular cycle-accurate virtual platform environment. Carbon will continue to develop and enhance it's flagship Model Studio product, but now will be able to offer a complete platform solution as well including cycle-accurate, implementation-accurate models of ARM IP.

How does this move benefit SoC Designer customers? 

SoC Designer customers will now be able to go to a single source to get both a modeling solution and a virtual platform solution. Carbon is the leading expert in cycle-level modeling and will use that expertise to help guide SoC Designer to provide even more value to it's users.

Does this represent a change of focus for Carbon?

Not at all. A key part of this partnership is the models and Carbon will remain focused on generating models that seamlessly integrate into all of the major virtual platforms. We now have a cycle-accurate virtual platform available to our customers, but will continue to make our model technology available equally to all platform environments.

How are SoC Designers customers affected by this move, and who will provide support?

A substantial part of the SoC Designer team has joined Carbon and we will work closely with ARM and will transfer many people from the SoCD team to Carbon. We will continue develoment based on the existing roadmap for SoC Designer and expect to have a steady stream of enhancements coming.

Because we already support many customers using SoC Designer, there is significant expertise with SoC Designer within Carbon already. We expect uninterrupted support to both SoC Designer and, obviously, Model Studio customers. Begining immediately, Carbon will be providing suport, including licensing, for SoC Designer.

How will this move change Carbon's support for other platforms like those from MIPS and CoWare?

We believe we are highly complementary with these other platforms and will continue to support our partners with our latest modeling technology.  Customers have a choice of virtual platforms and we will support our customers’ choices with Carbon Model Studio, irrespective of which platform is used. Each platform has it's own areas of focus. SoC Designer specifically targets customers who need cycle accurate platforms, other providers have targeted different areas of focus.

How are existing customers using cycle level models from ARM affected?

ARM will continue to support their existing customers using ARM cycle level models for the near future.

When will Carbon begin distribution of cycle level models for ARM IP?

Carbon will be introducing new cycle-accurate, implementation-accurate models of ARM IP in a phased roll-out over the rest of 2008. Please contact your local Carbon sales representative for details on specific models.

Need to know more about SoC Designer and ARM models?

We will be happy to provide further details and answer any questions you may have.

Contact Carbon directly for more information.

© 2008 Carbon Design Systems, Inc. SystemC is a trademark of the Open SystemC Initiative. ARM and RealView are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. Verilog is a registered trademark of Cadence Design Systems. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.