Mentor unveils Veloce Strato emulation platform with highest RoI

Mentor Graphics Corp. recently announced the Veloce StratoM emulation platform.

The Veloce Strato platform is Mentor’s third generation data-center friendly emulation platform. It is said to be the only emulation platform with full scalability across both software and hardware. Mentor is also launching the Veloce StratoM high-capacity emulator and Veloce Strato OS enterprise-level operating system.

So, how is the Veloce StratoM platform suitable for data centers than previous version?

According to Montu Makadia, one of the worldwide ATM – Emulation experts at Mentor Graphics ; with the Veloce StratoM emulator, there are no major changes to the lab requirements.

There is the same footprint, lower total power consumption, and lower total cooling requirement (air-cooled, air extraction from top). There is an added flexibility on the door and panel (new in Veloce Strato) that makes system maintenance easier.

The Veloce Strato Platform plans for highest effective capacity (up to 15BG) available. Does it really go up to 15BG? If yes, where are the test results?

According to a Mentor Graphics’ spokesman, as of now, no test results are required. Connecting emulators via a sophisticated connection method is common for Veloce. In this case, the Veloce Strato Link can be used to connect multiple Veloce StratoM emulators to reach 15BG capacity.

“We have installations at companies that will not allow us to talk about them by name. These are large, multinational companies with very advanced verification and validation requirements. The installations have gone extremely well and deployment is underway and happening without issue,” the spokesman added.

Mentor is saying there will be a roadmap to 15BG over five years and beyond? What if others come up with a faster system in between?

The spokesperson said: “We can’t predict what other emulation vendors will do in the next five years. We have done our competitive research and believe that we are uniquely positioned to have, both, the largest capacity available in 2021, as well as the emulation platform with the highest RoI.”

Finally, how is the Veloce Strato OS enterprise-level operating system a step above the earlier OS?

The Veloce Strato OS is the centerpiece of the technology for the overall Veloce architecture. The Veloce operating system basically enables three things: The first is the primary core compiler flow. When you use an emulator, you need to compile the design. You synthesize and partition, and move from an RTL/netlist to something that is mapped to the hardware (P&R).

The Veloce Strato OS delivers an integrated, fully automated, single step compilation flow with about 3x faster compilation time and with a 100 percent compile success rate. The compilation time and a 100 percent compile success is one of the key differentiators compared to an FPGA-based emulator.

The OS enables all the use models of verification with a unified compilation, runtime and debug flow. That includes traditional ICE (physical targets-based stimulus), the other virtual use models (SW device models) and testbench acceleration (SW test benches, UVM, SV, SC, TLM, etc.).

The third unique attribute is advanced debug. In addition to the waveform support, it supports Livestream to view a set of important signals, key register for long emulation runs as tests are progressing and Veloce’s unique ‘save and restore’ replay to restore emulation sessions instantaneously at a specified time point for detailed debug activities without re-running the emulation from the beginning.