From: garo@ani.viewlogic.com (Garo Toomajanian)
Subject: Re: What is PowerView ?
Originator: garo@ani
Organization: Viewlogic Systems, Inc.
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 22:06:58 GMT


In article <1993Jan6.132643.868@uoft02.utoledo.edu>, mohan@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (---Mohan Pakkurti---) writes:
|> Hello,
|> 
|> Can some one tell me what "Powerview" software is?
|> 
|> Thanks. :)
|> Mohan
|> -- 
|> ===============================================================================
|> + Mohanakrishna Pakkurti            + mohan@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu           +
|> + HOME: 2239 University Hills Blvd #204, Toledo OH 43606. Phone:(419)536-9073 +
|> ===============================================================================

from a press release...

Powerview(TM) Provides Engineers With an Open Design Environment 
that Simplifies Integration of Tools from Multiple Sources

        MARLBORO, MA, May 4, 1992 - Viewlogic Systems, Inc. (NASD-VIEW) today
announced PowerviewTM, a family of high-performance, UNIX-based design
automation tools and a modular framework. Powerview enables electrical
engineers, for the first time, to mix and match tools from multiple sources
easily, so they can design complex electronic components more quickly and
cost-effectively.
       Viewlogic's Powerview is the first commercial offering based on the
proposed electronic design automation (EDA) standards being developed by the
CAD Framework Initiative (CFI). CFI is an industry body comprised of prominent
EDA users and vendors, including Viewlogic, working to standardize critical
aspects of design automation technology.  Powerview also incorporates
industry-standard user interfaces, such as OpenLookTM and MotifTM, and supports
VHDL, EDIF and other industry standards.  The adherence to these standards and
Viewlogic's commitment to providing an open design environment makes Powerview
the most open and flexible design environment on the market.
       "With the announcement of Powerview, Viewlogic is delivering what
engineers have wanted for years - the ability to integrate multiple vendors'
and their own tools into a unified design environment, while precisely meeting
their design engineering needs," said Gene Robinson, Viewlogic's Senior Vice
President of Sales and Marketing.  "Design engineers are tired of having to
choose between tools that offer the best performance for a particular task,
and tools that work well together.  Now they can have both."
       The benefits of Powerview can be measured in many ways from its UNIX
optimized architecture to the blazing speed of Viewsim/XLTM, the new compiled
code simulator.  For use on UNIX workstations, Powerview includes
high-performance tools for design entry, simulation and verification, 
synthesis and targeting, and layout integration.
Powerview offers unrivaled flexibility for design entry, allowing electronic
designers to choose the forms of entry that most closely fit the task. 
Designs may be entered via VHDL, ABEL, truth tables, state diagrams and
designers to choose the forms of entry that most closely fit the task. 
Designs may be entered via VHDL, ABEL, truth tables, state diagrams and
tables, and functional block diagrams, in addition to schematics.  Designs can
also be entered through the waveform editor and the new graphical VHDL entry
tool called Envision VHDLTM.  Whether designing at the behavioral, structural
or gate level, Powerview provides the optimum design entry environment for
system, ASIC, IC, FPGA, PLD, analog and mixed signal design.

Powerview's simulation environment, Viewsim, combines VHDL simulation and
debugging with mixed analog and digital simulation of complex components and
systems. Analog and mixed signal capabilities are added through Viewlogic's
extensive integration of industry standard Spice simulators.  Viewsim/XL has
increased the simulation performance by a minimum of 10X and as much as 100X
in some instances.

Powerview's synthesis package, ViewsynthesisTM, provides VHDL logic synthesis
that is seamlessly integrated into the design and simulation process.
Viewlogic provides a full range of products for top-down and bottom-up design
methodologies, or the combination of both, that take advantage of the power of
VHDL.  In addition, Powerview includes tools such as ViewPLDTM  and
ViewretargeterTM.  Both tools address the need to preserve  existing design
investments and shorten time to market by reusing existing designs and
migrating them to new technologies.

Powerview's extension language, ViewscriptTM, is what puts the ultimate
control of the design environment into the hands of the design engineer. 
Viewscript is the same tool Viewlogic's own engineers use to create
applications.  Viewscript allows the design engineer to easily configure
design environments or integrate third party and proprietary tools into the
Powerview framework. 

       "Viewlogic has always focused on the design engineering phase of the
product development process," Robinson noted.  "We understand the need for,
and the challenges of, integration better than any EDA vendor, because
Viewlogic's tools have always had to be integrated with our customers'
physical 
layout and CAD systems.  So the concept of  'open systems' isn't new to us -
it's our heritage, it's our culture."

Standards-Based Framework Protects Investment, Accommodates New Technologies
Sooner

       The Powerview framework is designed to provide design engineers with
the most flexible and open design environment in the industry. Based on
proposed CFI guidelines, Viewlogic's framework provides the electronic design
engineer with the ability, through its extension language, Viewscript, to
customize the design environment to meet the requirements of third party and
proprietary tools.
       All Powerview tools run on UNIX-based Sparcstations from Sun
Microsystems Inc.,  Hewlett-Packard Company, Digital Equipment Corporation,
and IBM and are data compatible with Viewlogic's Workview tools for
MS-DOS-based computing platforms.

Pricing and Availability
        Powerview will be available in June of 1992.  Pricing will range from
$26,500 to $70,000, depending upon tool configuration.
       Founded in 1984, Viewlogic Systems, Inc. is a worldwide supplier of
electronic design automation solutions.  Viewlogic's software for UNIX- and
DOS-based computing platforms, combined with its broad range of support
services, enables electrical engineers to design state-of-the-art electronic
products more efficiently, reducing development cost and speeding time to
market.  
Newsgroups: comp.lang.vhdl