( ESNUG 394 Item 6 ) --------------------------------------------- [05/29/02]
Subject: ( SNUG 02 #12 ) Synopsys Says Behavioral Compiler Is Alive & Well
> It's rumored that Behavioral Compiler is approaching its End-Of-Life
> notice. It appears that nobody will be crying at the funeral.
> "Behavioral Compiler? - yuck. Let's you exchange one set of arbitrary
> limitations on coding style with another. BC was overpromised and
> underdelivered." - Tom Heynemann of Compaq
From: Aaik van der Poel <aaik@synopsys.com>
Hi John,
I'd like to take the opportunity to comment on the rumor that BC has been
End-Of-Lifed. Your sources might just be a little mis-informed.
For the grounds of the rumor, recently we have undergone some efforts to
clean up the number of BC options on our price list, and consolidate them
to a single line item. Users of these consolidated packages might have run
into, or heard about, that those were no longer available for sale. Those
that thrive on rumor mills of course picked this up, without fully informing
themselves.
BC is alive and well, and I encourage those that state that "it does not
work" to take a look at it. As you can see from your respondents, most user
experience was gained 3 to 4 even 5 years ago. It has long since been
acknowledged that behavioral synthesis was somewhat overpromised as "the
next big thing", as Oren Rubinstein from Nvidia states correctly.
Behavioral synthesis is definitely not a cure-all, but it is very productive
for algorithm design and implementation, unless the designer has a very
clear insight in what the architecture of his or her algorithm should look
like, and the absolute minimum area and maximum performance is needed.
Otherwise BC users repeatedly come back to us saying how productive it is
especially for derivative products, and (slight) spec changes, cutting their
design cycle on those algorithms in more than half. And yes you will have
to learn to think "behavioral", as with most things you will have to seed,
water and nurture first, before you can harvest.
So just to put this issue to rest: BC is alive, it is staffed, and it is
continuously being improved, and those that want to try it should ask their
Synopsys sales rep for the "Behavioral Compiler" product.
- Aaik van der Poel
BC Product Marketing Manager
Synopsys, Inc. Mountain View, CA
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