Latest additions to DeskPOD models

Simpod in the News

Press Releases

Upgrade is result of requests from networking customers who need more capacity and higher performance

DeskPOD II offers 1200 signal pins, improves network performance and software debugging

Santa Clara, California, May 15, 2000 - Simpod Inc., an EDA company in the embedded systems verification market, today announced that it has significantly upgraded its hardware modeling system, DeskPOD™ .

DeskPOD is used to verify embedded system and ASIC designs. Its modeling technology combines the accuracy demanded by hardware engineers with the performance, ease of use and debugging capabilities needed by software engineers. DeskPOD models, including models for microprocessors, are used for logic simulation and for hardware and software (HW/SW) co-verification.

According to Jason Andrews, Simpod's Technical Marketing Manager, "We improved DeskPOD to better address the needs of our customers in the networking applications market. DeskPOD II runs 10 times faster, allows for devices with up to 1200 signal pins and supports software programmable voltages. The increased performance has also enabled support for JTAG debugger connections."

DeskPOD II's New Features
DeskPOD II adds Direction Detection to automatically infer if a bi-directional signal pin is acting as input or an output. Direction Detection further improves the accuracy of DeskPOD models.

To cope with lower and multiple voltages, DeskPOD II now supports up to 4 independent voltages, up to 1200 signal pins and programmable voltage levels ranging from 1.25 to 5 volts.

Since DeskPOD interfaces with logic simulators and software debuggers over a network, Simpod has improved performance by adding a 100 BaseT interface.

DeskPOD II enhances software debugging with the addition of support for JTAG software debuggers. Andrews noted, "JTAG-based debugging is the least intrusive debugging method and the most popular among software engineers, and now DeskPOD supports JTAG debugging at the speed needed by software engineers."

The DeskPOD Advantage
DeskPOD models provide accurate simulation models of silicon devices with higher performance than any full-function software models can provide since they use actual silicon. Models of new devices can be created in a fraction of the time it takes to develop a software model.

Who uses DeskPOD
In an embedded system project users might include: project managers, who benefit from a shorter project schedule and lower project cost; hardware engineers, who get more accurate verification of the design and true stimuli from accurate models; and software engineers, who have early access to the hardware to test code and uncover HW/SW interface issues.

About Simpod Inc.
Simpod offers a new generation of high-performance modeling systems for use in the design and verification of digital electronic systems. The Company's technologies are incorporated in the DeskPOD product for use in design and verification of embedded systems and SoC designs. More information about the company and its products can be found at www.simpod.com.

Notes to editors:
Graphics and/or photo available on request

Reader Service Information:
Simpod Inc., 3080 Olcott Street, Suite 100A, Santa Clara, CA, 95054
Phone: (408) 330-9300, Fax: (408) 330-9301,
http://www.simpod.com, info@simpod.com

Acronyms:
ASIC		Application Specific Integrated Circuit
EDA		Electronic Design Automation
HDL		Hardware Description Language
HW/SW		Hardware and Software
IC		Integrated Circuit
JTAG		IEEE Std 1149.1 for testability
RTL		Register Transfer Language
SoC		Systems-on-Chip