Codasip Studio

technology

Our EDA toolset offers unparalelled level of automation and a market-unique approach to processor design and customization.

The Patented Technology

The technology behind our flagship product, Codasip Studio™, employs a revolutionary, patent-protected approach.

In a nutshell, we use one single high-level description of the processor and we replace the manual tasks of writing the RTL, adding custom instructions, updating the compiler etc. with a fully automated workflow. Read on for more info!

Unique Design Method

How others do it

When it comes to RISC-V^® customization, most tools on the market rely on manually edited or additionally provided code to the original RTL and tools. This approach is lengthy, unsuitable for flexible changes, and potentially unable to take full advantage of any added custom instructions.

How we do it

In comparison, Codasip Studio generates all the needed tools and code from the CodAL™ description fully automatically. All the generated parts are new and natively aware of the custom instructions. We don't use intrinsics, and are thus able to compile better performing code.

The CodAL Language

First of all, we describe the architecture of a RISC-V processor in the CodAL language. CodAL is a high-level hardware description programming language, developed by Codasip specifically for processor architecture description and modelling.

CodAL is based on C, so it is familiar to developers and easy to work with. Even without the expertise to program on the RTL level, it is possible to modify a RISC-V core described in CodAL and get a reliable result.

The CodAL language:

Video Introduction

Automated Generation of Customized Tools

Hardware development kit (HDK) = set of tools necessary to simulate, debug, and successfully integrate the processor RTL into a SoC
Software development kit (SDK) = set of tools necessary to create, simulate, and debug programs for the newly designed processor

The high-level CodAL model can easily reflect any desired custom changes to the processor design. It is especially convenient in the case of RISC-V, an architecture that is flexible and customizable by its very design – allowing to add a standard instruction set of your choice, or design a custom one while maintaining compliance with the RISC-V standard.

The CodAL model is used by Codasip Studio to generate the complete customized HDK and SDK.

Verification

Off-the-shelf Codasip RISC-V Processors are pre-verified, but a new or customized processor core requires new verification. Codasip Studio generates a full UVM environment ready for verification. The generated simulator serves as a golden Reference Model, the generated RTL running in a RTL simulator servers as design-under-test (DUT), and the UVM-based verification process verifies that their behavior is equivalent.

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