Aldec

ALDEC, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	EDA
Founded	1984
Headquarters	Henderson, Nevada, United States
Products	Active-HDL, ALINT-PRO, Riviera-PRO, Spec-TRACER, RTAX/RTSX Prototyping, HES-DVM, HES-7, TySOM
Website	aldec

Aldec, Inc.is a privately ownedelectronic design automationcompany based inHenderson, Nevadathat providessoftwareandhardwareused in creation and verification of digital designs targetingFPGAandASICtechnologies.

As a member ofAccelleraandIEEE Standards AssociationAldec actively participates in the process of developing new standards and updating existing standards (e.g.VHDL,SystemVerilog). Aldec provides ahardware description language(HDL) simulation engine for other EDA tools such asAltiumDesignerand bundles special version of its tools withFPGAvendors software such asLattice.

History

1984-1999

Aldec was founded in 1984 by Dr. Stanley M. Hyduke.In 1985 the company released its first product: theMS-DOS-based gate-level simulatorSUSIE.For the next couple of years several versions of the product were used as companion simulators for popular schematic entry tools such asOrCAD.Sensing the growing popularity ofMicrosoft Windows,Aldec ported its simulator to this platform and added schematic entry and design management tool. The new software suite was released in 1992 asActive-CAD(some low-end versions of the suite were for some time sold underSusie-CADbrand). One of the distinguishing features of Active-CAD was the ability of instantaneous transfer of schematic changes to the simulator, allowing quick verification of the behavior of the modified circuit.

In 1996 Aldec signed an agreement withXilinxthat allowed distribution of the Xilinx-only version of Active-CAD under theFoundationname. WhileVHDLandVerilogwere supported by Active-CAD in the form of schematic macros, the release ofActive-VHDLin 1997 marked the shift from netlist-based design to HDL-based design. After adding Verilog support, Active-VHDL was renamed toActive-HDLand was still available as of 2020.

2000-2024

In 2000 Aldec released a high-performance HDL simulator working not only onWindows,but also onSolarisandLinuxplatforms.In 2001 ALDEC added hardware to its product line: theHES (Hardware Embedded Simulation) Platformallowing hardware acceleration of HDL simulation and incremental prototyping of hardware. 2003 marked the release of Riviera-PRO supportingassertion based verification(OpenVera,PSLandSystemVerilogcan be used to write properties, assertions and coverage).Support forSystemCand non-assertion part ofSystemVerilogwas added in 2004. Interfaces toMATLABandSimulinkappeared in Aldec tools for the first time in 2005.In 2006 Riviera-PRO was the first simulator supportingOpen IP Encryption InitiativebySynplicity.

Stimulated by requests from Verilog users, Aldec released in 2007 an advanced, user-configurablelinttool implementing rules created by STJapanese consortium of major silicon vendors. In 2008, the company released ALINT: Design Rule Checker (STARC – Japanese Consortium of 11 ASIC Companies). In 2010, it released support for VHDL IEEE 1076-2008. Also in 2010, Aldec's Active-HDL won the Best FPGA Design & Simulation Tool in China. In 2011, Aldec delivered UVM 1.0, OVM 2.1.2 and VMM 1.1.1a support, and released a 4 MHz Design Emulator. It also won Best FPGA Design & Verification Platform Provider in China. In 2012, Aldec entered the SoC/ASIC prototyping market with HES-7, and jointly launched OSVVM and VHDL Verification. In 2013, Aldec released Spec-TRACER Requirements Lifecycle Management. In 2015, Aldec released ALINT-PRO with CDC Verification, and in 2016, Aldec released TySOM Product Line for Embedded Development using SoC FPGAs. In 2020, it released support for VHDL IEEE 1076-2019.

Products

Software

• Active-HDL- FPGA development environment built around common kernel HDL simulator. Supports text-based and graphical design entry and debugging tools, allows mixed-language simulation (VHDL/Verilog/EDIF/SystemC/SystemVerilog) and provides unified interface to various synthesis and implementation tools. Also supports assertion based verification with Open Vera, PSL, or Systemverilog Assertion statements. Special versions of the software that support just one FPGA vendor are available, e.g.Active-HDL Lattice Edition.Only available on MS Windows platform.
• Riviera-PRO- high-end HDL simulator targeting ASIC and large FPGA designs. Riviera-PRO extends Active-HDL's simulation features with support for advanced verification methodologies such as linting, functional coverage,OVMandUVM,hardware acceleration, and prototyping. Riviera-PRO is a new generation of the tool known as Riviera-Classic and is available in 32-bit and 64-bit on MS Windows and Linux.
• HES-DVM- solution allowing acceleration of HDL simulation (10x to 50x verification time reduction), emulation of the entire design and hardware/software co-simulation (useful inEmbedded Systemdevelopment).
• ALINT-PRO- single framework for design rule checker/linting and CDC analysis. ALINT-PRO is able to conduct extensive textual analysis of individual Verilog, VHDL and SystemVerilog design sources and advanced checks of the entire design hierarchy. Multiple sets of highly configurable, predefined rules are available and new, custom rules can be created using providedAPI.Built-in Phase-Based Linting methodology allows faster, more efficient checking of rules. ALINT-PRO smoothly supports running the rule checks for designs that target FPGA implementation usingXilinx,Intel,Microsemi,andLatticetechnologies with minimal setup
• Spec-TRACER- unified requirements life-cycle management application designed specifically for FPGA and ASIC designs. Facilitates requirements capture, management, analysis, traceability and reporting; integrates with Windows-based HDL design and simulation tools.
• IP Products- a set of general-purpose Intellectual Property blocks created by Aldec and its partners, validated in Active-HDL and Riviera-PRO environments.

Hardware

• HES-7- high capacity, high density,FPGA-basedASICprototyping solution. With help ofXilinxVirtex-7FPGA-based prototyping boards, HES-7 allows testing designs of up to 24 million ASIC gates.
• Microsemi RTAX/RTSX Prototyping- the efficient way of prototyping designs with radiation hardened FPGA by using footprint-compatible prototyping boards with flash-based, reprogrammable chips on top. The solution includes optional software for netlist translation.
• DO-254 Compliance Test System (CTS)- It is a complete verification solution that can assure the FPGA on your system to be DO-254/ED80 compliant. The CTS gives the user the ability to perform an advanced way of In-Hardware Simulation instead of the traditional Hardware Testing. As test vectors for the In-Hardware Simulation, you can reuse the same testbench with 100% Code Coverage results captured from RTL simulation. By reusing the same testbench, the Hardware Verification can easily achieve requirements traceability. You can perform the In-Hardware Simulation at speed at the target device. The CTS also allows easy comparison and debugging of the In-Hardware Simulation and HDL Simulation results via waveform format.
• TySOM- Embedded development boards and FMC daughter cards based onXilinxZynq-7000 series targeting IoT, ADAS and Industrial Machine Vision.

Education

Aldec provides fully functional, heavily discounted versions of its software for educational institutions.

Aldec also offers a special Student-Edition of Active-HDL, downloadable from Aldec's website. The Student-Edition has limited design capacity and some reduction of program functionality, but supports both design languages (Verilog resp. VHDL).

In 1999 it contributed to the establishment of the "Aldec Digital Design Laboratory" at theUNLV.

Aldec software is packaged with several electronic design related books.

Student Edition of Active-HDL was the first HDL simulator to be sold atWalmart.

See also

• VHDL
• SystemC

External links

• Official website