Mazda Adopts Synopsys' Virtual Prototyping Solution for Electronic Control Unit Verification

Today, the ECU is the most important device in automobiles based on performance and cost. We need virtual prototyping not only to accelerate ECU development time while lowering cost, but also to ensure that our ECUs are safe and reliable, said Mr. Hisayoshi Naito general manager, Vehicle Development Division, Mazda. We selected Synopsys' CoMET-METeor virtual prototyping solution because of its cycle-accurate modeling and high-speed simulation capabilities.

Today's automotive makers struggle with the added complexity of millions of lines of software code affecting everything from energy use to safety features. Virtual prototyping has become an essential part of the design flow to help solve this problem, said John Koeter, vice president of marketing for the Solutions Group at Synopsys. Especially for ECUs, achieving system validation and software development earlier in the flow and with higher quality is crucial to an automobile's success in the end market.

Virtual prototypes are software models of complete systems. System and software developers use virtual prototyping technology to develop and debug designs with pre-silicon development environments months before hardware is available. Synopsys' virtual prototyping solution improves developer productivity with ease of integration, non-intrusive multicore debugging and analysis, real-time execution speeds, and the ability to apply real-world user interfaces. This solution enables concurrent development of hardware and software, significantly shortening embedded system suppliers' hardware/software integration and test cycle time resulting in accelerated time to market.