Case Studies

Zaiq has completed hundreds of successful engagements for its clients. The following case studies are a sample of Zaiq's work.

Verify 5M gate ASIC with multiple protocols
The Challenge
Our customer needed to verify an extremely complex 5M gate ASIC with multiple protocols - ATM, IP, HDLC, Digital Hierarchy-DSQ, DS3, TDM, IMA. In addition to complex architectural implementation, the project had complex blocks - SAR, ARM, IMA, QoS - and a tight schedule and budget.

Our Solution
Zaiq provided architectural and domain expertise, and managed all aspects of the verification project. After thoroughly reviewing specifications for completeness and accuracy, Zaiq provided 13 verification engineers who used SYLVER ™ and TestBenchPlus™ to develop and debug all project-specific verification tests. Our engineers developed a test plan and transferred the entire verification and simulation environment into the lab.

Results
Zaiq coordinated a large engineering team across five sites and our engineers found, documented and fixed nearly 500 bugs. Because we enhanced our verification capability to keep pace with increasing design complexity, we were able to provide a reusable stable verification methodology for our customer. Our engineers discovered deficiencies in our customer's design methodology, which improved their future design capability. We achieved production quality with two silicon spins. As a result, the customer met all schedule and budget targets.

Verify 24 boards with 14 ASICs per board
The Challenge
Our customer needed to verify a large system design that had 24 boards with 14 ASICs per board. Complicating the project further, the ASICs had multiple instantiations -300,000, 2M, and 4M gates - and a very complex architecture. Our customer had limited design resources and verification strategy, and didn't have the engineering capability in house. They were also on an aggressive schedule.

Our Solution
Zaiq managed the entire verification project, allowing the customer's staff to concentrate on other projects. Zaiq brought in an experienced team of 14 verification and three architectural & design engineers who deployed and used PREP™, TestBenchPlus™ and SYLVER™ to develop and debug all project-specific verification tests. Our engineers' architectural and domain expertise allowed us to develop the specifications for the 4M ASIC, as well as develop the project plan, schedule, and test plan and simulate HW and SW simultaneously.

Results
Our customer met all schedule and budget targets. We successfully coordinated the project for our customer at five sites and provided disciplined project management to ensure adherence to the schedule and budget. All verification was outsourced to Zaiq, and the customer requested additional outsourced design and verification solutions for future projects.

IP verification and domain expertise
Customer Challenge
This start-up company had minimal design and verification processes in place when they brought Zaiq on board. They had capable design engineers but no verification engineers and, like other companies, were on a very aggressive schedule. The company needed to verify a 16-board system design with large FPGAs and off-the-shelf VLSI. Their designs were 200,000 gates, utilized MMC ANYFLOW 5500 switch fabric, and had ATM, Ethernet and IP-Optical switching protocols.

Our Solution
Our customer needed ATM and Ethernet domain knowledge and expertise, which we provided with a team of six verification engineers. Our engineers integrated MMC 5500 models to verify our customer's IP and reviewed design specifications for completeness and accuracy. We utilized TestBenchPlus™ and SYLVER™ and wrote and debugged 400 project-specific tests. We also developed and managed the schedule and verification test plan.

Results
Based on our work, our customer met all schedule and budget targets. We coordinated and managed the Zaiq engineering team at our customer's site and our engineers found, documented and fixed more than 200 bugs. We met our customer's first shipment date, and as a result, our customer requested Zaiq solutions for additional projects.

ASIC design and functional blocks
Customer Challenge
Our customer needed to verify a 16-board system with eight ASICs in multiple instantiations. The protocol was IP over ATM Gigabit Router and the board had high architectural complexity. Our customer, a start-up, required expert verification resources to meet a tight deadline.

Our Solution
We provided ATM and IP domain knowledge and expertise, developed architectural flow specifications, managed the verification project and co-managed design activity. After developing the majority of the design and verification specs, our team of 15 verification and two design engineers used TestBenchPlus™ and SYLVER™. Zaiq wrote and debugged 400 project-specific tests, developed the schedule and test plan with our customer, and designed one ASIC as well as functional blocks for two others.

Results
All of the project's ASICs were functional on the first pass. We coordinated and managed our engineering team at our customer's site and found, documented and fixed more than 300 bugs. An existing ASIC was redesigned based on the verification results and we demonstrated clear advantage of Zaiq's verification methodology by producing a fully operational system. Our customer achieved all schedule and budget goals and our technology and environment were sold to NEC.


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