DAFCA CO-FOUNDS NEW INDUSTRY CONSORTIUM TO TACKLE SILICON DEBUG

Companies collaborate to enhance interoperability and accelerate adoption of design-for-debug methodologies

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — June 14, 2005 — DAFCA, Inc., a leading edge provider of DFD (Design-for-Debug) technologies, today announced the formation of the Design-for-Debug (DFD) Consortium (www.designfordebug.org) at an open meeting on June 13, 2005 during the 42nd Design Automation Conference in Anaheim, Calif.  Consortium members and conference attendees gathered at the kick-off session to initiate an industry-wide discussion of SoC (System-on-Chip) debug challenges and a collaborative approach for defining DFD solutions.

The DFD Consortium is initially focused on mobilizing a representative cross-section of the industry to raise awareness and create a forum in which tool interoperability and methodology issues can be identified and investigated. The DFD Consortium will also identify data and file format standards required to simplify and accelerate functional debug of chips mounted in silicon prototypes or systems (referred to as "in-situ"). These efforts are all targeted at providing both DFD users and solution providers with a better understanding of product requirements and a practical roadmap for adopting design guidelines.

“Post-silicon debug is an acute problem for the semiconductor industry, and has become the major technical barrier to on-time delivery of fully functional SoCs.  We are delighted to be part of the DFD Consortium because successful design for debug methodologies depend on the inter-operability of new tools that, for the first time, actually solve the problem,” said Peter L. Levin, CEO and co-founder of DAFCA Inc.

"The time needed to track down functional problems once a chip is in its prototype system is unpredictable and costly today, mainly because a broad set of silicon debug and diagnosis solutions is not yet commercially available," commented Fidel Muradali, program chair, International Silicon Debug and Diagnosis Workshop. "This cross-company consortium is valuable because it brings the focus needed to define practical solutions and methodologies that can bridge the design and manufacturing test domains."

Building Upon Existing Interoperability

To facilitate rapid instrumentation of complex SoC designs, DAFCA’s ClearBlue Silicon Debug Platform is architected to work seamlessly within existing Electronic Design Automation (EDA) flows.  Leveraging DAFCA’s ReDI (Reconfigurable Debug Instrumentation) instruments, the ClearBlue Debug Environment interoperates cleanly with Novas Debussy and Verdi tools to re-create the richness of the pre-silicon simulation based debug environment post-silicon, at-speed and in-situ.

About the DFD Consortium

The Design-for-Debug Consortium was created to define and promote the products, methodologies and industry standards required for more efficient functional debug of silicon prototypes. The DFD Consortium welcomes industry participation by EDA, ATE and DFT providers, as well as system and semiconductor companies, with membership that today includes: Corelis, Inc.; DAFCA, Inc.; First Silicon Solutions (FS2); Intellitech Corporation; JTAG Technologies; Fidel Muradali (consultant) and Novas Software, Inc. For more information or to become a member of the DFD Consortium, visit www.designfordebug.org.