Faraday Technology, a fabless ASIC and SIP provider, is using MathWorks' Model-Based Design to accelerate the development of SoCs, including development of its NAND Flash Controller error correcting code (ECC) engine. Matlab and Simulink products have helped Faraday accelerate development of more efficient designs by completing system-level simulations 200 times faster, increasing throughput performance by 15 per cent, and cutting gate count by up to 57 per cent.
Faraday is positioned to capitalise on new business opportunities as more integrated circuit manufacturers seek advanced SoC designs. To meet this demand, Faraday established a faster and more cost-efficient workflow to develop memory controllers for microprocessor subsystems. Faraday adopted Model-Based Design to accelerate SIP development, explore system-level design alternatives, and improve communication among engineers. This design approach has helped reduce gate count, and shorten the development cycle for memory controllers and other modules, and, as a result, differentiate itself through lower cost to its customers.
'Model-Based Design provided an efficient and cost-effective way to improve silicon intellectual property development by enabling us to rapidly identify the best design configurations and get products to market faster,' said Ken Chen, ESL methodology manager at Faraday. 'The Simulink environment is ideal for integrating, simulating, and exploring design architectures. The simulations are up to 200 times faster than RTL simulations, and Simulink models can be easily converted to HDL code for FPGA prototyping.'
