First Silicon Solutions (FS2) Announces Support for Novas Siloti Visibility Enhancement Product; Interoperability Accelerates Hardware Debug for FPGAs and Structured ASICs

"Debug continues to be an increasingly important aspect in theverification flow, both at the prototyping and silicon productionlevel. Tightly integrating debug tools and on-chip instrumentationwith EDA capabilities and flows is critical for today's increasinglycomplex designs," said Rick Leatherman, Vice President and GeneralManager of FS2 at MIPS Technologies. "We are pleased to cooperate withNovas in creating this vital connection between hardwareinstrumentation and software-based tools."

FS2 and Novas will enable interoperability between FS2 LogicNavigator(TM) and Bus Navigator(TM) products and the Novas SilotiSilVE product. The integration between FS2 and Novas allows users toidentify essential debug signals and conditions for capture usingNavigator on-chip instrumentation flow. On-chip signal informationcaptured using the FS2 Navigator products can be viewed at a registerlevel by the Novas Verdi(TM) Automated Debug System. The SilVE productis automatically invoked within the Verdi environment so that userscan expand 'on-demand' signal values and view results at the registertransfer level (RTL).

Logic Navigator and Bus Navigator on-chip instrumentationsolutions allow high performance triggering and tracing of embedded IPblocks and on-chip buses (AMBA, OCP, etc.) respectively. Both productsare supported by FS2's high performance System Navigator(TM) probingtechnology and work in conjunction with FS2's embedded processor debugblocks to provide comprehensive on-chip instrumentation and debugsolutions.

"Customers need full visibility of internal signals to understandcomplex chip functional behavior," said George Bakewell, Director ofProduct Marketing at Novas Software. "Obtaining this level ofvisibility requires on-chip instrumentation as well as data expansionand correlation to leverage the acquired signal data. Linking the FS2Navigator technology and our SilVE product will enable users toachieve full design visibility."

About FS2

First Silicon Solutions (FS2) specializes in hardware verificationand debug technologies including on-chip instrumentation customsilicon IP, development tools, and design services for programming,testing and debug of embedded systems in FPGA, SoC, SOPC, ASSP andASIC designs. FS2 provides full system solutions with IP blocks forprocessor, logic, and complex system level designs, along withhardware and software tools for improved debug and analysis at allstages in the development cycle - from system design and verificationto software development and optimization. FS2 products enable siliconvendors and their customers to take their designs from "first silicon"to production faster, with a better understanding of the designperformance and overall operation -- for faster time-to-market andhigher quality products.

FS2 was acquired in September 2005 by, and is a division of, MIPSTechnologies, Inc.

Additional information about First Silicon Solutions is availableat www.fs2.com.

Siloti, SilVE and Verdi are trademarks of Novas Software, Inc.FS2, First Silicon Solutions, Bus Navigator, Logic Navigator, andSystem Navigator are trademarks of MIPS Technologies, Inc. in theUnited States and other countries.