Czech company Codasip, part of software company ApS Brno sro, has secured $2.8 million in a first round of funding ot help it develop and sell its software framework for the design of application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs),
The money will be used to accelerate the existing product roadmap for EDA tools, as well as expanding the range of Codix IP cores on offer, Codasip said. It will also be used to expand the sales presence in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.
Codasip has been offering its Studio ASIP software since 2011 and claims that its Framework "software outperforms related Synopsys and Cadence development tools in many aspects." The Series A round has been led by Credo Ventures (Prague, Czech Republic), possibly encouraged by the fact that EDA software and IP vendor Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) recently bought Target Compiler Technologies NV (Leuven, Belgium) a pioneer of application-specific instruction processors (ASIPs) for an undisclosed amount of money (see Synopsys buys application processor pioneer).
Codasip processor design flow based on open standards. Source: Codasip
Application-specific instruction processors (ASIPs) have the advantage of delivering greater computational and power efficiency for specific functions, while still being software programmable but usually at the expense of greater design complexity. ASIPs lie at the end of spectrum that extends from CPUs and GPUs through DSPs and application-optimized DSPs through to ASIPs. Despite the complexity of the design process and reliance on effective and reliable compilation ASIPs are being considered for power-sensitive cores to be included in system-chips, Codasip said.
ASIPs are also a good replacement for microcontrollers used in Internet of Things (IoT) applications as the instruction set can be tailored to the exact application. Mobile and wearable IoT is driving demand for extremely low processors that perform specialized tasks. An ASIP can improve performance by orders of magnitude over a general processor core.
Codasip recently released version 2.0 of the Codasip Studio ASIP platform.
Related links and articles:
News articles:
Synopsys Buys Application Processor Pioneer
