Enabling Arm architecture support for Questa simulation tools

20th November 2019

Alex Lynn

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Mentor has announced it is working closely with Arm to leverage their own 64-bit Arm Neoverse-based server platform to run electronic design automation (EDA) software for the design of next-generation Arm-based processors. As part of this effort, Mentor is also announcing availability of its Questa simulation tools optimised to run on the platform, either in cloud-based environments or as part of an on-premise parallel regression grid.

Porting the Questa simulation tools is the latest milestone in Mentor’s longstanding collaboration with Arm to help drive EDA requirements for Arm architectures with production-quality solutions.

“To enable our customers to realise the cost, performance and power-efficiency features of Arm server technology, Mentor is pleased to add 64-bit Arm support for our industry-leading Questa simulation software,” said Joe Sawicki, Executive Vice President of IC EDA for Mentor, a Siemens business. “The clear benefits of Arm-based processor technology, together with the advanced functionality of Mentor’s Questa verification flow, delivers a step-function in verification-per-dollar and verification-per-watt for IC designers.”

Due to the large data structures involved, simulating advanced system-on-chip (SoC) IC designs is both compute- and memory-intensive. Mentor’s Questa simulation tools running on the 64-bit Arm-based server platform can now help design and verification teams running parallel regressions overcome these challenges, thereby unleashing the performance and memory bandwidth of Arm processors for the broader IC design market.

“The availability of Mentor’s Questa simulation tools running on 64-bit Arm Neoverse- based processors allows us to leverage the inherent power, performance, and memory bandwidth advantages of our own processing architectures when designing IP,” added Drew Henry, Senior Vice President, IPG Strategy Planning & Operations, Arm. “Our longtime collaboration with Mentor has unlocked significant value for our mutual customers as we continue to deliver leading-edge technologies for the next-generation infrastructure.”

Mentor’s Questa simulation tools for the Arm-based server platform are available for early adopters now. For more information, please contact a Mentor sales representative.