Comprehensive IP portfolio accelerates IoT design development

Synopsys' embARC Open Software Platform offers online access to open-source and commercial drivers, operating systems and middleware to accelerate development of application software. By providing the industry's broadest portfolio of IP and software solutions optimised for the IoT, Synopsys enables developers to accelerate development of IoT systems.

"Our close collaboration with Synopsys on many generations of TSMC process technologies has enabled us to provide our mutual customers with the IP they need to meet the performance, power and area targets for their applications," said Suk Lee, Senior Director of Design Infrastructure Marketing Division, TSMC. "The joint development of the low-power, integrated IoT IP platform on TSMC's 40nm process is another example of how Synopsys and TSMC help designers achieve their project goals and quickly ramp into production."

"The worldwide Embedded and IoT market is poised for exponential growth over the next five years, with embedded and intelligent connected systems expected to reach 11.5bn unit shipments annually in 2019," said Mario Morales, Programme Vice President, Enabling Technologies and Semiconductors, IDC, "Technology suppliers than can offer a comprehensive IP portfolio, from essential hardware, software tools, security, to relevant ecosystem support for applications, will be critical to helping the design community address the growing presence of an emerging set of vendors focused on the next growth market."

Re-architected and optimised IP solutions for the IoT:

• Near threshold, ultra-high density logic libraries reduce power consumption, while thick oxide logic libraries deliver low leakage for always-on functions.
• High-density, low voltage embedded memory compilers incorporate the smallest bit cells with integrated test and repair supporting embedded flash.
• Power- and area-optimized 12 bit/14-bit SAR data converters, USB 1.1 and 2.0, MIPI CSI-2 and DSI and NVM IP enable implementation of required sensor, data and connectivity functions, while lowering overall system cost.
• Silicon-proven Bluetooth Smart IP implements the Bluetooth 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 low energy standards and supports down to one-volt operation for extended battery life.
• Security IP including Public Key Accelerators, True Random Number Generators, security protocol accelerators, as well as secure hardware root of trust, secure boot and middleware software provide protection against evolving threats in the IoT.
• Highly configurable 32-bit DesignWare ARC embedded processors and EV vision processors enable designers to tailor each ARC processor instance to meet specific performance, power and area requirements of the IoT application.
• Pre-validated, tightly integrated sensor and control IP subsystem delivers significant power savings and orders of magnitude reduction in cycle count with application-specific hardware accelerators.

Synopsys provides a comprehensive suite of commercial and open-source tools and software to accelerate the development of ARC-based embedded systems for the IoT. This includes Synopsys' MetaWare Development Toolkit and MQX RTOS, as well as support for the GNU toolchain and Linux kernel. The embARC Open Software Platform gives ARC software developers online access to a comprehensive suite of free and open-source software commonly used to develop IoT applications such as MQTT, CoAP, FreeRTOS and Contiki OS from the embarc.org website.

The website also provides documentation and a forum-based community where developers can share resources, expertise and code to speed deployment of ARC-processor-based embedded systems. Synopsys also partners with embedded hardware and software vendors to provide developers with commercial tools, drivers, operating systems and middleware through the ARC Access Program.

"As the IoT market continues to evolve, designers are faced with the challenge of addressing the security, wireless connectivity, cost constraints, and energy-efficiency needed for intelligent devices that are at the heart of IoT products," said John Koeter, Vice President of Marketing for IP and Prototyping, Synopsys. "By providing the industry's most comprehensive IP portfolio specifically architected for the IoT with supporting software, tools and ecosystem, Synopsys helps developers achieve their design goals and differentiate in this fast-growing market."