\n\tMentor Graphics Corp., Wilsonville, Ore., has announced a collaboration with ARM to provide accessible and affordable access to Mentor’s Tanner AMS analog\/mixed-signal design flow for ARM Cortex-M0 processor-based implementations as part of the ARM DesignStart program. The collaboration lowers the barriers to embedded and IoT device design and verification through a combination of an affordable, complete IC design tool suite and the ability to evaluate the design flow on a reference design at no cost.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe ARM DesignStart program offers SoC designers access to free Cortex-M0 processor IP for design, simulation, and prototyping, with the option of then purchasing a simplified fast-track license for commercialization.<\/p>\n
\n\t“The free evaluation environment and an affordable tool suite from Tanner gives any vendor a fast and effective way to develop Cortex-M0 based smart analog mixed-signal designs,” stated Nandan Nayampally, vice president of marketing and strategy, CPU Group at ARM. “Our partnership with Mentor Graphics will streamline the path to full production of IoT and embedded products, reducing developers’ costs and increasing their speed to market.”<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Tanner design flow supports digital, analog, AMS, and MEMS design in one complete, highly integrated, end-to-end flow. Designers capture the schematic, perform analog and mixed-signal simulation, and lay out and verify the physical design. This design flow offers a complete, processor-based IoT chip environment.<\/p>\n
\n\tDesigners will be able to evaluate an ARM Cortex-M0 IoT reference design at no cost by using a web-based Mentor Virtual Lab to interact with the complete set of Tanner design tools. After evaluation, customers can easily purchase the specially-priced software from Tanner to begin creating their own IoT designs and combine this with the free Cortex-M0 design access available on the ARM DesignStart portal.<\/p>\n