New Company Offers Architecture Workbench for System Engineers; See it for the First Time at DAC Booth #2187
New tool offers a simple, intuitive approach for building a precise protocol description
Hillsboro, Oregon, June 6, 2005 – Newcomer Bellum Software announced today the availability of its first product, a visual tool for high-end design and protocol mapping for Electronic System Designs (ESD), such as large ASICs and full custom chips. The new tool, Protocollum, offers the ability to create a high level architectural model that facilitates comprehension of architectural behavior by providing graphical visualization and allowing user interaction.
“What we have really set out to do with Protocollum is to offer a tool that allows system architects, designers, functional block implementers and test and validation engineers a way to communicate and simulate with the same design intent and high level descriptions,” stated Reed Christensen, founder and president of Bellum. “The software is really intended to be a workbench for the engineer, providing a basic foundation upon which any custom design can be created.”
About Protocollum
Bellum’s Protocollum™ product enables an engineer to quickly specify, implement and validate communication protocols. It allows the engineer to capture and edit the rules which define the protocol behavior. These rules become an executable model which can then be run in a visual environment for design testing. Alternative approaches today consist mainly of interpreting English language specifications provided in printed documentation, leaving a tremendous amount of room for error.
Creating a protocol model with Protocollum can be done in a fraction of the time required previously. Using a graphical layout similar to a message sequence chart, an engineer can create relationships and connections for objects which come from well-defined classes such as Msg_, Event_, Rule_, etc. Most of the message modeling is done through intuitive point-and-click operations. The addition of state variables and state operations is done on a per-rule basis, in clearly defined object areas using the Tcl scripting language. The end result is an object-orientated model that was easily created, is organized and runs in a graphical environment.
“Protocollum gives system designers, test and validation groups the ability to visually simulate the passing of messages, including some time information, to get a head start on developing test strategies before the use of HDLs has even begun,” commented Bob Hunter, vice president of marketing and sales for Bellum. “As the functional blocks are later developed in a HDL, questions about how the original architect intended the design to function can be bounced off the original visual description and simulation, rather than having to refer to a written spec, which by then is probably outdated.”
Pricing, Distribution and Availability
Protocollum is available today initially in the U.S. with plans to distribute overseas in the near future. Pricing starts at $995.00 for a single, one-year license. Protocollum is available on Linux X86 platforms.
To schedule a demo at DAC, booth #2187, please email the company at sales@bellum.biz or call Bob Hunter at 503-704-9817.
About Reed Christensen, founder and president
Prior to founding Bellum, Christensen was with Intel Corporation for 12 years working on processor development and managing software development teams. One of his largest projects at Intel was as manager and technical leader for architectural validation of the P6 processor core which was used in the Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Centrino, and many other processors in the x86 architecture family. Christensen received his M.Sc from Brigham Young University.
About Bob Hunter, vice president of marketing and sales
Most recently Hunter was president and co-founder of Model Technology, a leader in VHDL and Verilog simulation. Model Technology was purchased by Mentor Graphics in 1994. Prior to that he was co-founder of Logic Automation, and before that held marketing and management positions at Metheus, Tektronix and Texas Instruments. Hunter has a Ph.D and M.Sc from the University of Manchester, England.
About Bellum Software
The genesis for Bellum Software began in the fall of 2001 with the beginning of research and development work for the Protocollum tool. The company has set its sights on providing solutions for computer-aided architecture design. The company is privately held. For more information about Bellum and Protocollum, please visit the company’s website at www.bellum.biz.
Bellum and Protocollum are trademarks of Bellum Software. All other brand names and product names are the property of their respective owners.
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For more information, contact:
Barbara Marker for Bellum
HighPointe Communications
503-209-2323