New Release of 3L’s Diamond Multiprocessor Tool-Suite Accelerates the Design, Verification and Implementation of Multiprocessor Systems

For designers targeting TI’s C6000 series digital signal processors (DSPs), Diamond 3.2 automatically creates Code Composer Studio GEL scripts to allow easy debugging of multiple DSPs. To accelerate FPGA design and verification within a multiprocessor environment, Diamond 3.2 is ISE10.1 ready and its HDL simulation capabilities have been further enhanced with the automatic creation of simulation projects.

Typical multiprocessor systems are constructed with modules comprising multiple DSP, GPP and FPGA processors. To connect these multiple processors designers have traditionally relied on low-level design techniques, drawn upon their intimate processor, board-level and system knowledge and optimized the design though numerous and time consuming iterations. With Diamond 3.2, connections between attached processors are handled automatically. Using the Diamond IDE the designer is able to place tasks, or self-contained blocks of code, onto the system processors and connect them with channels that do not require physical information.

Diamond then manufactures the firmware needed for the interconnect, optimizes the design and creates the physical implementation. The overhead and burden of interconnect design on the developer is reduced, allowing them to devote more effort on algorithm design and application optimization. “With this benchmark release of Diamond we have raised the bar in terms of multiprocessor design, performance and productivity”, said JP Arnaud, director of software development at 3L. “Diamond’s new interface synthesis enables the rapid development of very complex multiprocessor systems and this, coupled with stronger more integrated verification and debug capabilities means the designer can more confidently explore the design space, quickly iterate design alternatives and better reuse their existing IP.”

Diamond allows designers to accelerate the creation of multiprocessor applications through highly targeted design automation coupled with a powerful model that simplifies the description of efficient multiprocessor systems. It helps the designer create tasks that communicate with other tasks on multiprocessing architectures. Integrated into Diamond 3.2 is the Diamond multiprocessor TCP/IP stack that provides designers with a high-performance solution for processor intensive applications such as high-end video and imaging, wireless base stations and networking.

As a dividend of 3L’s membership of TI’s Developer Network, Diamond 3.2 has tighter integration with the TI design flow, and included in the 3.2 release is 3L’s latest TI DM642 Video Library that has faster code execution, improved internal memory utilization and more end-user design examples. For designers using TI C6455 DSP, 3L have bundled into the 3.2 release new and improved EDMA3 and sRIO drivers that deliver increased communications performance. Commenting on the announcement, 3L’s managing director Peter Robertson said, “the new features inside Diamond 3.2 have been prioritized against the requirements of the multiprocessor design community. They are synonymous with our development philosophy and roadmap for Diamond; balancing design automation with designer control to deliver a faster time-to-market and freeing the developer to direct more effort on application design.” Diamond 3.2 is available from 3L Ltd and its multiprocessing hardware partners, with processor licensing by volume and type.