Collaboration with ARM accelerates custom SoC and IoT system designs

Cadence Design Systems has introduced the industry’s first complete hosted end-to-end solution to enable designers to accelerate their custom SoC and Internet of Things (IoT) design process using ARM Cortex-M processors. The offering accelerates mixed-signal SoC design for IoT, incorporating the ARM IoT Subsystem for Cortex-M processors and Cadence’s interface IP and unified mixed-signal implementation solution, now optimized specifically for Cortex-M cores, says the company. To further lower barriers to innovation, Cadence has also joined the ARM DesignStart program to provide tools and IP for designs incorporating the Cortex-M0 processor. The ARM IoT Subsystem and DesignStart packages provide the most comprehensive solution a designer may need – including tools and IP – to accelerate time-to-silicon for their IoT applications. The combined mixed-signal IoT flow for both the IoT subsystem package and DesignStart are available on the Cadence Hosted Design Solution (HDS), a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model which offers quick access to EDA tools, support and methodologies. With this secure solution, users can log in anywhere, anytime and gain access to tools without needing installation or the supporting hardware for it. Optimizing IoT system design requires a deep understanding of tool flows, methodology, IP, packaging and software. ARM has developed a test chip to showcase this complete IoT implementation using a complete Cadence tool flow, the ARM IoT Subsystem and Cadence IP. The test chip includes processor IP, Artisan physical IP, wireless connectivity solutions, interface IP, software, design tools (both front- and back-end), optimized design methodology and scripts, says the company. “ARM is seeing a growing demand for custom SoCs as our partners continue to focus on improving costs, power and functionality,” said Vincent Korstanje, vice president of marketing, systems and software group, ARM. “The collaboration with Cadence makes designing IoT platforms and custom SoCs even easier, further accelerating time to market.” Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu, senior vice president and chief strategy officer, Cadence, added: “As the leader in system design enablement, we are collaborating with ARM to provide a complete solution of optimized IP, tool flows and subsystems to enable customers to deliver emerging Internet of Things applications,” “Through our continued collaboration with ARM on both ARM DesignStart and the ARM IoT Subsystem for Cortex-M, we’ve optimized our EDA tools and methodology to complement ARM IP to bring designers from concept to silicon much faster.”