March 6, 2006 – IMEC said it is expanding its collaborations with CoWare, and new partners Arteris and Mentor Graphics, as part of its multimode multimedia (M4) R&D program, which aims to create new design concepts, hardware and software, and verification for new multiprocessor platforms enabling future “ambient intelliGence” environments. The ultimate goal is development of M4-based terminals that adapt automatically to their surroundings to deliver multimedia services to end users, independent of the available radio system.

The project utilizes CoWare’s ESL design products and IMEC’s experimental software to define and optimize design flows for multistandard wireless and multimedia platforms based on multiprocessor systems-on-chips (SoC). Work with Arteris brings a network-on-chip to use with IMEC’s multiprocessor mapping methodology for developing on-chip communication infrastructure for multiformat multimedia devices, while partnering with Mentor Graphics provides access to the VStation emulation technology to speed up the verification pfcess of demonstrators.

“By bringing together the different companies in the value chain we will accelerate innovations in designing wireless embedded systems,” stated Rudy Lauwereins, VP of design technology for integrated information and communication systems at IMEC.