Date:29th May 2012

Accellera Systems receives Synopsys' 2012 Tenzing Norgay Interoperability award

Synopsys, Inc has announced that Accellera Systems Initiative will receive Synopsys' twelfth annual Tenzing Norgay Interoperability achievement award for advancing industry standards that enable interoperable system design flows.

Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) and Accellera merged together to form the Accellera Systems Initiative in December 2011. Accellera developed SystemVerilog, Unified Power Format (UPF) and IP-XACT while OSCI developed SystemC and TLM-2.0. These standards are underlying formats that enable interoperability among design and verification tools, allowing engineers to go from system level design to final signoff. With large overlap in their membership and the need to collaborate to enhance current standards for increasing complexity of future designs, the two organizations merged in 2011.

"We are honored to accept the Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award," said Dr. Shishpal Rawat, Accellera Systems Initiative chair. "We continue to strive for developing standards that enable interoperability across the entire design flow. The new organization will offer uniform policies and procedures leading to operational efficiencies in developing and promoting EDA and IP standards across the entire design and verification flow."

There is an increase in demand for the better interaction between OSCI standard "SystemC" and Accellera standard "SystemVerilog". With similarities in the two organizations' membership and in their goals of taking standards through IEEE for broader adoption around the world, it became clear that the combined organization could serve the user community more efficiently. As a result, all of the standards development effort will be done in technical sub-committees governed by one set of policies and procedures, and following a uniform IP Rights policy. The streamlined development process will provide for better standards, which will enable interoperable tools and comprehensive methodologies for system and system-on-chip (SoC) designers.

"OSCI and Accellera have played important roles in developing open, inclusive standards for system and SoC designers," said Rich Goldman, vice president of corporate marketing and strategic market development at Synopsys. "We applaud their merger to broaden the member collaboration under one single organizational umbrella."

Synopsys established the Tenzing Norgay Interoperability achievement award to recognize EDA providers who collaborate on interoperable design flows that benefit the user community. The award is presented annually to organizations that have surpassed common levels of interoperability, have contributed to overall industry advancement and have helped provide a new view of the future for EDA interoperability.

Author: Srinivasa Reddy N