Fact sheet: IBM Demonstrates Next-Generation Electronic Design Environment Integrating NT-Based IntelliStations and RS/6000s running AIX
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: San Francisco (June 15, 1998) – At the 35th Design Automation Conference (DAC) here, IBM (Booth 1318) is demonstrating a next-generation electronic design environment that seamlessly integrates IBM IntelliStations* running Microsoft’s Windows NT** and IBM RS/6000* hardware running AIX*. The demonstration of UNIX**/NT interoperability for interactive and batch EDA applications is designed to highlight the price/performance and manageability benefits of IntelliStations in this environment.
Featured in IBM’s Heterogeneous UNIX/NT Environment for Electronic Design will be: NT- and AIX-based design tools from Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys; Transarc Corp.’s Enterprise File System products AFS and DFS**, which will provide global file sharing for the network; and workload management software from Platform Computing Corp.
Windows NT is emerging as an attractive design platform for the Semiconductor industry, and IBM will also be demonstrating the benefits of the IntelliStation in this environment in booths throughout DAC. IBM IntelliStations running NT design tools will be demonstrated by many DAC exhibitors, including: Cadence Design Systems, FTL Systems, Mentor Graphics, Model Technology Inc., Platform Computing Corp., Quickturn Design Systems, Si2, TransEDA, and others.
At DAC, IBM’s Manufacturing Industry Solutions Unit is spotlighting the world-class services, hardware, software and industry expertise it provides to companies that manufacture chip, board, and system level products.
“While UNIX has clearly been the dominant design platform in this market, more and more key software is becoming available on NT. Many companies are adding Windows NT workstations to their design mix, to reduce cost and also to optimize their design processes,” said Jay Ennesser, Technology Systems & Microelectronic’s Industry Executive for IBM’s Manufacturing Industry Solutions Unit. “Our interoperability demo is designed to show customers how IntelliStations and RS/6000s can work in tandem, with users of either system having easy access to the files and the tools they need. In this environment, IBM brings to the table our powerful, highly manageable IntelliStations, RS/6000 workstations and servers, access to IBM and third-party software, and the integration expertise to help customers put it all together.”
Featured elements of the heterogeneous UNIX/NT design environment demonstration will include:
IBM IntelliStations — a Powerful Platform for Electronic Design Automation — IBM IntelliStations, such as the Dual 400 MHz Pentium II M Pro, offer users power and performance for demanding electronic design applications, and lower cost of ownership than other electronic design platforms. IntelliStations also offer advanced manageability and security features designed to help customers focus more of their attention on their applications and running their business, and less on running their network. These features, which include IBM’s Asset ID*, Wake on LAN*, SMART Reaction* and LANClient Control Manager* (LCCM) 2.0, all help customers deploy and keep track of their inventories, monitor system outages and/or tampering, perform automatic data backup before a hardware failure occurs and remotely manage their systems.
Robust NT-Based Design Software — A wide array of software for electronic design is already available for NT. In IBM’s booth, key tools being shown on IBM IntelliStations as part of the heterogeneous environment demonstration include: Cadence’s Allegro**, which provide an advanced environment for the physical layout, design and analysis of printed circuit boards, multichip modules and hybrid board designs; and two high-performance, high capacity Verilog simulators – Cadence’s Verilog XL and Synopsys’ Chronologic VCS.
Seamless Interoperability between NT and UNIX — Transarc Corp.’s Enterprise File System products AFS and DFS**, offer a highly scaleable, truly interoperable and secure file server environment for electronic design. With AFS and DFS, designers around the country or around the world can effectively collaborate, accessing a virtual file system comprised of files residing on multiple distributed UNIX and NT servers. Users can take advantage of transparent file access no matter where they may be located across the network. AFS and DFS offer advanced replication capabilities to insure that data is always available to users, and the products also cache data locally, decreasing network traffic, and provide for automatic data replication.
Load Sharing and Job Scheduling — Platform Computing’s LSF Suite for Workload Management offers distributed load sharing and sophisticated job scheduling for heterogeneous UNIX and NT computing environments. The LSF Suite harnesses all available computing resources so that workload is handled faster, resulting in greater user productivity, increased processing efficiency, and a return on investment measured in months rather than years. In the IBM demo, the LSF suite will be used to provide seamless batch processing, which matches resource requirements of every job to the capabilities of all computers on the heterogeneous network, insuring that jobs are always assigned to the best computer available for any task.
For more information on IBM’s offering for the semiconductor industry, customers can contact (800) IBM-7777, priority code EDA.
Source: IBM