ABSTRACT
It has been noted by the digital design community that the greatest potential for additional cost and iteration cycle time savings is through improvements in tools and techniques that support the early stages of the design process.1 As shown in Fig. 4.1, decisions made during the initial phases of a product’s development cycle determine up to 80% of its total cost. The result is that accurate, fast analysis tools must be available to the designer at the early stages of the design process to help make these decisions. Design alternatives must be effectively evaluated at this level with respect to multiple metrics, such as performance, dependability, and testability. This analysis capability will allow a larger portion of the design space to be explored yielding higher quality as well as lower cost designs.
