Synopsys RTL-to-GDSII Flow for ARM Cortex-A8 Processor Development

Synopsys and ARM announced the immediate availability of  the Galaxy Design Platform RTL-to-GDSII flow for the synthesizable ARM Cortex-A8 processor. This portable Synopsys flow, along with the ARM processor and physical IP, delivers a 5-10x improvement in designer productivity compared to the original optimized, semi-custom approach. The flow has also delivered more than 1000 DMIPS at 500MHz performance in a 65-nanometer (nm) low-power process technology and is capable of achieving over 1700 DMIPS at 850MHz for advanced consumer applications when targeted at high-performance 65-nm process technologies.

The Cortex-A8 processor, ARM's first high-end application processor based on the ARMv7 architecture, features support for TrustZone technology, Thumb-2 instructions, Jazelle-RCT technology and the powerful ARM NEON signal processing extensions that are targeted at the next-generation enriched multimedia and gaming platforms.

Building on experience from the optimized semi-custom implementation design flow for the Cortex-A8 processor, ARM and Synopsys have created a fully automated synthesizable Galaxy implementation flow. The new approach enables a small team of engineers with a standard ASIC design background to achieve the required performance for next-generation high-performance, low-power applications within three months. The easy-to-use implementation flow leverages ARM physical IP optimized for the Cortex-A8 processor while enabling broader design portability across both libraries and process technologies (90-nm, 65-nm and 45-nm).

The automated implementation flow for the synthesizable Cortex-A8 processor was validated using the ARM Advantage-HS standard cells and optimized Advantage Random Access Memory (RAM) instances for 65-nm LP technology to achieve both high performance and low power. The combination of an easy-to-use implementation flow, a high-quality processor and physical IP enables customers to deliver proven results with best-in-class productivity. Designers can combine the flow with the ARM physical IP, optimized for the Cortex-A8 processor, or use the flow with their own physical IP libraries.

Availability
The automated implementation flow for the Cortex-A8 processor is available immediately from Synopsys. Synopsys also offers consulting services to help accelerate the adoption and implementation of advanced methodologies. The synthesizable Cortex-A8 processor, Advantage-HS standard cells and optimized Advantage RAM instances for target 65LP processes are immediately available from ARM.

Source: Synopsys