EDA
System
IP
SolvNetPlus
Training & Education
Overview
IntelliProp, founded in 1999, is a prominent provider of IP cores and ASSP products tailored for targeted memory and storage companies. Headquartered in Longmont, Colorado, IntelliProp focuses on storage technologies, especially flash-based innovations. Their expertise extends into NAND interfaces, ECC, encryption, Flash Controllers, and RAID, catering to a wide range of applications such as Hard Disk Drives (HDD), Solid State Drives (SSD), and Multi Media Cards (MMC). Due to their stringent design requirements for developing an NVDIMM-P memory controller product, IntelliProp needed a reliable, high-performance verification IP solution that supports custom requirements.
"The integration of Synopsys VC VIP, Verdi and VCS was seamless. This combination of solutions allowed for a more enhanced user experience and helped us to accelerate our design schedule and meet our design goals."
Hiren R. Patel
|VP, Business Development, IntelliProp
Challenges
IntelliProp faced several significant challenges:
- Aggressive Design Schedule: IntelliProp needed a verification solution that could keep up with their rapid development pace to deliver high-performance server system-on-chips (SoCs) on time.
- Quick Testbench Bring-up: They aimed to bring up their IP testbench within 24 hours, a challenging task given the complexity of the project.
- Protocol Integration: Ensuring two UVM-based models, each exercising different protocols, worked seamlessly together in a single environment for NVMe chip-level verification was crucial.
- Third-Party Simulator Compatibility: They needed to enable the use of a third-party simulator with their Gen-Z chip-level verification platform.
Solution
IntelliProp turned to Synopsys and integrated several of their industry-leading verification solutions:
- VC Verification IP (VIP) for NVDIMM-P: This solution provided the necessary compliance with the latest JEDEC specification updates, ensuring that IntelliProp's designs met industry standards.
- VCS® Simulator: The simulator facilitated a swift and efficient verification environment setup.
- Verdi® Debug: This tool was essential for debugging, offering detailed protocol and timing checks with comprehensive error message.
Key features of the solution included:
- Ease-of-Use: The user-friendly nature of Synopsys' tools enabled IntelliProp to adhere to their aggressive time-to-market schedule.
- Seamless Integration: The integration of VIP with Verdi Debug and VCS allowed for a streamlined verification process.
- Scalability and Reusability: The UVM verification environment was both scalable and reusable, providing long-term benefits.
Results
The implementation of Synopsys' verification solutions yielded impressive results for IntelliProp:
- Accelerated Time-to-Market: IntelliProp achieved first-test success within an hour and integrated their IP in just one week, accelerating their time-to-market by a month.
- Enhanced Debugging: The integration with Verdi Debug enabled IntelliProp to identify and address design bugs quickly, significantly reducing development time.
- Robust Verification Environment: Synopsys' VIP provided a built-in coverage model that facilitated error injection, manipulation of delays, and data reordering, ensuring comprehensive verification.
- Seamless Third-Party Integration: The ability to use a third-party simulator without significant effort, thanks to Synopsys' extensive support for various simulation tools, was a game-changer for IntelliProp.
With Synopsys' solutions, IntelliProp successfully met their aggressive design schedule and delivered a high-performance NVDIMM-P memory controller product, underscoring the quality, maturity, and robustness of Synopsys' Verification IP, VCS, and Verdi.
