RISC-V is an emerging choice for semiconductor companies to create highly differentiated products for a wide range of end applications. Both established players and start-up companies are investing heavily and looking at the RISC-V architecture as an alternative, and in many cases a more flexible solution to current processor architecture options. Unlike proprietary processor architectures, RISC-V lets design teams customize their processor based on the needs of their end target applications:
- Mobile market constantly pushes for faster, lower power chips.
- Extensive silicon proliferation in automotive chips for driverless cars and require enormous compute capabilities.
- Datacenters need to process AI- and ML-based computations faster while keeping power budgets under control.
In this blog we will focus on the EDA, IP and Cloud solutions offered by Synopsys to develop RISC-V designs, accelerating time to results and achieve PPA targets. For those looking to experiment and try out an RISC-V design, Synopsys Cloud offers free access to a RISC-V based sub-system design for functional verification within the SaaS deployment.
Synopsys EDA and IP Solutions for RISC-V
Synopsys offers comprehensive solutions for seamless end-to-end development of RISC-V-based SoCs from design and verification, custom processor design, RTL analysis and optimization, Interface and Verification IP. Synopsys ARC-V Processor IP™ offers RISC-V processors for high-performance, mid-range and ultra-low power designs to meet the requirements for a wide range of applications. To accelerate software development, ARC-V processors are supported by the trusted Synopsys MetaWare Development Toolkit.
Accelerating RISC-V Development with Synopsys Cloud
As more companies are looking to create differentiated end-market products, the pressure to deliver their projects on-time, time constraints have never been greater. Synopsys Cloud is an option open to companies large and small to address time to market and quality of design challenges by offering industry-leading flexibility that offers time to results and productivity advantages:
Access by the minute: With the FlexEDA business model, users can scale up and down their tool licenses to run verification and other design flows by the minute, on-demand. With unlimited access to tool licenses, designers can complete their workloads more quickly, and with the time saved run more regressions to further improve the quality of designs. A user survey conducted by an independent consulting company shows an improvement of 40% in time to results compared to traditional on-premises EDA deployments.
Hybrid Solution for Cloud Bursting: Synopsys Cloud Hybrid solution enables designers to burst their EDA workloads to the cloud securely, seamlessly, and quickly. With automatic job splitting between on-premises and cloud, scheduler integration and real-time bidirectional data synchronization, the hybrid cloud solution significantly improves engineering productivity and save months of IT implementation time.
Free Access to RISC-V Reference Design on Synopsys Cloud SaS
Synopsys offers free access to a RISC-V based sub-system design to run functional verification. Users will be able to:
- Experience industry-leading Synopsys VCS® simulation and Verdi® debug and verification management platforms
- Simulate a sub-system design and generate a waveform dump to see the functionality of Synopsys LPDDR and UART IP with a RISC-V based design
- Reference additional reference methodologies from Synopsys SolvNet: Synopsys Verification Reference Methodology (VRM) Cookbook for RISC-V based SoC.
You can bring in your RISC-V design as well and run a free evaluation using Synopsys Cloud SaaS or BYOC deployments, providing complete verification, design and RTL analysis and optimization solutions for RISC-V based chip designs.
Synopsys, EDA, IP, and the Cloud
Synopsys is the industry’s largest provider of electronic design automation (EDA) technology used in the design and verification of semiconductor devices, or chips. Synopsys is a leading provider of high-quality, silicon-proven semiconductor IP solutions for SoC designs. The broad Synopsys IP portfolio includes logic libraries, embedded memories, analog IP, wired and wireless interface IP, security IP, embedded processors and subsystems. With Synopsys Cloud, we’re taking EDA to new heights, combining the availability of advanced compute and storage infrastructure with unlimited access to EDA software licenses on-demand and easy access to complete IP portfolio so you can focus on what you do best – designing chips, faster. Delivering cloud-native EDA tools and pre-optimized hardware platforms, complete IP access, an extremely flexible business model, and a modern customer experience, Synopsys has reimagined the future of RISC-V chip design on the cloud, without disrupting proven workflows.