Forte Design Systems, Inc. was a San Jose, CA, based provider of
high-level synthesis
High-level synthesis (HLS), sometimes referred to as C synthesis, electronic system-level (ESL) synthesis, algorithmic synthesis, or behavioral synthesis, is an automated design process that takes an abstract behavioral specification of a digital ...
(HLS) software products, also known as
electronic system-level Electronic system level (ESL) design and verification is an electronic design methodology, focused on higher abstraction level concerns. The term ''Electronic System Level'' or ''ESL Design'' was first defined by Gartner Dataquest, an EDA-industry ...
(ESL) synthesis. Forte's main product was Cynthesizer. On February 14, 2014, Forte was acquired by
Cadence Design Systems.
[Cadence press release]
Cadence to Enhance High-Level Synthesis Offering with Acquisition of Forte Design Systems
/ref>
History
The company was founded in 1998 as C2 Design Automation by John Sanguinetti, Andy Goodrich and Randy Allen. A year later the company changed its name to CynApps and began selling C-based synthesis and RTL translation tools. It also distributed an open-source C++ class library called Cynlib, which competed with SystemC. In 2000, CynApps acquired Dasys, a Pittsburgh-based maker of behavioral synthesis tools. In 2001, CynApps merged with Chronology (founded in Redmond, WA, in 1990) to become Forte Design Systems. Forte began selling Cynthesizer, a SystemC-based HLS tool, which had its first successful tapeout in Japan in 2001. In 2009, Forte acquired Arithmatica, whose CellMath Designer tool was integrated into Cynthesizer. In 2012 and 2013, industry analysts found that Cynthesizer was used by 31% of high-level designers, the most of any ESL tool.
On February 14, 2014, Cadence Design Systems acquired Forte. In 2015, Cadence released Stratus HLS, which combines the automation and synthesis engine of Cynthesizer with the graphical features of Cadence's previous HLS tool, C-to-Silicon.
Management team
* Sean Dart, president and chief executive officer
* John Sanguinetti, CTO and founder
* Brett Cline, VP of marketing and sales
* Mike Meredith, VP of technical marketing
Product
Cynthesizer is a high-level synthesis
High-level synthesis (HLS), sometimes referred to as C synthesis, electronic system-level (ESL) synthesis, algorithmic synthesis, or behavioral synthesis, is an automated design process that takes an abstract behavioral specification of a digital ...
tool. "High level" in this context means designers can describe the functionality of a complex electronic system as a pure algorithm in SystemC. The designer can then direct Cynthesizer to produce a unique hardware architecture that implements the system in a specific number of clock cycles. This replaces the traditional method of using a hardware description language like Verilog
Verilog, standardized as IEEE 1364, is a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. It is most commonly used in the design and verification of digital circuits at the register-transfer level of abstraction. It is als ...
or VHDL
The VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) is a hardware description language (HDL) that can model the behavior and structure of digital systems at multiple levels of abstraction, ranging from the system level down to that of logic gate ...
, where the designer must manually write out the usage of hardware components in a fixed schedule of clock cycles. If designers want hardware with different performance, they can redirect Cynthesizer to produce a new architecture that is faster or smaller, whereas with the traditional method a completely new design must be written. The output of Cynthesizer is Verilog
Verilog, standardized as IEEE 1364, is a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. It is most commonly used in the design and verification of digital circuits at the register-transfer level of abstraction. It is als ...
, which is then run automatically through a logic synthesis tool.
References
External links
"Hardware design and levels of abstraction"
''EETimes'' 2007.
"Forte Design Systems' Forte"
''EDA Café'' 2006.
"Got system-level synthesis?"
''EEDesign'' 2005.
*
{{Programmable Logic
Electronic design automation companies
Companies based in San Jose, California