Delivering High-Performance Implementations of ARM Processors with IC Compiler in the ARM-Synopsys Reference Methodology

ARM and Synopsys have a long-standing relationship of over a decade that has included a co-developed Reference Methodology (RM) for implementing synthesizable ARM using Synopsys tools. At the ARM Developers' Conference in 2005, ARM and Synopsys announced a new release of the RM that includes support for Synopsys' new IC Compiler place-androute solution. In this article we will take a closer look at this new flow and how IC Compiler has improved the results achieved by the ARM-Synopsys Reference Methodology.