Runtime Design Automation Previews Its Design Management Software

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA --June 3, 1996--33rd Design Automation Conference Andrea Casotto today announced the launch of a new electronic design automation (EDA) company, Runtime Design Automation. Runtime Design Automation will focus on providing and supporting products that help designers manage their designs, network computing resources, tools and processes more efficiently.

Runtime Design Automation was founded in May of last year by Andrea Casotto, Ph.D. Casotto, 34, is the company's president. The company is privately funded.

"Today's VLSI designs require new ways to manage and keep the design process on the fast track. The pressures of time-to-market, larger and more complex designs and the proliferation of tools and design files create an atmosphere where designs are at risk," said Andrea Casotto. "As designers are faced with the proliferation of design files and tools, they are also confronted with the realization that there is no way to propagate changes reliably and quickly, especially in the late stages of a design. Runtime overcomes this problem with its design management solutions."

Runtime is developing tools that improve the performance, productivity and safety of the design process while preserving design file dependencies. The company's first product manages and improves the design flow using innovative software technology. Runtime's technology is based on research done in the area of run-time tracing, while Dr. Casotto was at the University of California, Berkeley.

With the introduction of Runtime Design Automation's first product designers will be able to automatically manage design flow, control dependencies and shorten the design cycle by effectively exploiting network computing resources.

Runtime is previewing and demonstrating its first product at the 1996 Design Automation Conference (DAC) in Las Vegas the week of June 3, booth number 1481. The company plans to formally introduce its first product this summer. To schedule a demonstration, contact Runtime at 408-524-0461 or info@rtda.com

Andrea Casotto received his Dr. Eng. degree from the University of Padova, Italy, in 1985, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1987 and in 1991, all in electrical engineering. Prior to founding Runtime, he was a researcher at Siemens AG in Munich, Germany. Before that, he worked as a programmer/analyst at the University of California, Berkeley, when he managed the Berkeley CAD System Octtools. His research interests include several aspects of computer-aided design of electronic systems, with emphasis on parallel algorithms for automatic layout, probabilistic optimization algorithms, design management, and CAD framework.

At Berkeley and at Siemens Casotto worked on developing the technology that contributed to Runtime's first product. In August 1993, a paper he co-authored with Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli titled "Automated Design Management Using Traces," was published in the IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, Vol. 12, No. 8.

In addition to the strong technical background of its founder, Runtime has the support of several highly regarded and respected EDA luminaries.

Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California in Berkeley said of Runtime's future, "Runtime's technology will make a difference in the way leading-edge software and hardware is designed. Andrea Casotto has implemented run-time tracing technology for our design projects. This technology captures the dependencies between design files and their corresponding tools without interfering with the design process."

Sangiovanni-Vincentelli also noted, "At UC Berkeley we offer our students, the best of the commercially available design tools, as well tools based on the latest research. Dr. Casotto's research and implementation of a run-time tracing methodology helped manage students' design flows and improved their productivity when he was working towards his PhD in our group. I plan to introduce the newest version of Casotto's tools in our latest research on hardware-software co-design and on analog design."

Runtime Design Automation is located at 1208 Apollo Way #508, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, 408-524-0460, FAX: 408-481-9873, info@rtda.com, http://www.rtda.com

(Current location: 3155 Kearney Street #130, Fremont, CA 94538-2268 - Phone: (510) 770-0300, Fax: (510) 770-3930)