New England User2User puts emphasis on board-level design and verification
The New England edition of Mentor Graphics’ User2User (U2U) conference series is a little over a fortnight away. The day-long event will take place at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts on May 16th.
The conference has four strands – PCB Flow, High-Speed, PADS and Functional Verification. Alongside the Mentor presenters, users offering papers include Alcatel-Lucent, AMD, Avid Technology, General Dynamics, Harris and Raytheon.
Some of the papers were also given at last month’s Silicon Valley U2U, and one or two caught out attention generally.
Chuck Ohrbom, an electrical engineer with ViaSat will discuss constraints-driven design. His abstract reads:
“The presentation will focus on a comprehensive use of the DxDesigner/Expedition flow toolset which allows for rapid implementation of printed-wiring-assemblies. Central to this method are the DxDesigner schematic capture tool, the CES constraints tool, and the Auto-router feature of the Expedition layout tool. Stylistic methods will be presented which lend to ease-of-understanding and design re-use. Also best-practices within the design flow will be covered.”
Ohrbom will be going a little further than just presenting by also setting out “a real-time challenge design” to be addressed with audience participation.
In the Functional Verification strand, Pedram Riahi, a senior staffer at Raytheon, will review the potential in the Accellera-backed Open Verification Methodology (OVM) for use on FPGA designs. His abstract states:
“In any company, there is always a challenge to adopt a new tool (i.e., a new language or a new methodology) for both individuals and teams, specially if the last tool has been in the toolbox for not years, but decades. Adopting SystemVerilog to replace VHDL, and introducing OVM as an advanced functional verification tool to the decades-old FPGA Design process, which has never had a place for it, are not exceptions either. This presentation will discuss how this adaptation took place, how some of the challenges were overcome and how some of them are being dealt with currently.”
Certainly, there’s a large audience out there for some practical insights into OVM as it gathers more and more momentum.
Finally in our preview, the day opens with a keynote on “Creating Measurable Value Through Differentiation”, from Mentor’s Don Kurelich. It’s a version of the excellent address CEO Wally Rhines gave at the Silicon Valley edition and well worth getting up early for.
Attendance at U2U is free-of-charge, and the event runs from 8am – 4pm with the full program downloadable in PDF format. Mentor has also made arrangements for attendees to receive free parking on the Bentley campus.
