HEALTH

Combination of PCI Express Universal Verification Components, Incisive Enterprise Manager and the Compliance Management System Improves Verification Process: Cadence Design Systems, the leader in global electronic-design innovation, today announced that ClearSpeed Technology, the world leader in acceleration technology for high-performance computing (HPC), has adopted the Cadence Incisive Plan-to-Closure Methodology featuring Incisive Enterprise Manager. By following the Plan-to-Closure Methodology, ClearSpeed achieved higher levels of quality and predictability in its compute-intensive applications featuring PCI Express-based designs. ClearSpeed develops massively parallel coprocessors and accelerator boards delivering unmatched performance per watt for HPC applications on industry-standard systems. To reach these goals, the company is committed to using a methodology that automates key verification tasks essential to address ClearSpeed's growing verification challenges. Cadence's Compliance Management System (CMS), included as part of the Incisive Verification IP portfolio, was the perfect fit for such a complex verification task. ClearSpeed used CMS with their new PCI Express-based product line, taking advantage of the executable verification plan (vPlan) and the full PCI Express compliance test suite. The Plan-to-Closure based methodology dramatically increased compliance coverage, found bugs much more rapidly, and allowed for project management based on metrics, which greatly reduced the risk of respins. "Incisive Enterprise Manager works well with the PCI Express Compliance Management System to provide better reporting and tracking of project status," said Mike Bartley, test and verification manager at ClearSpeed. "Each of our team leaders can now confidently report on verification status in all the functional areas of coverage, bug rates and test failures." With Incisive Enterprise Manager, ClearSpeed has realized major improvements in its ability to track project progress and better assign resources. Reporting, coverage tracking, bug tracking, and test failures are all managed and reported to management, allowing for a much better work flow, better communication, and much less project risk. "ClearSpeed is at the forefront of a new era of HPC architectures based on coprocessors that push the limits of performance while delivering dramatic reductions in power consumption," said Steve Glaser, corporate vice president, Marketing, Verification Division at Cadence. "Our Incisive Enterprise Manager solution will offer them much higher levels of visibility into their projects so they can maintain their industry-leading position when it comes to performance per watt."