Emulation and Verification Engineering

Emulation and Verification Engineering (EVE) was a French company that specialized in hardware/software co-verification solutions for the semiconductor industry. Founded in 2000 by Luc Burgun and Ludovic Larzul, EVE carved out a niche in the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) market by developing a novel approach to hardware-assisted verification. Burgun, who served as CEO, brought extensive experience from the EDA sector, having previously been the R&D Director for Meta Systems, another hardware emulation company that was acquired by Mentor Graphics. This background, which includes a Ph.D. in Logic Synthesis, was instrumental in shaping EVE's direction.

The company's core business centered on providing tools that accelerate the complex and time-consuming process of verifying System-on-Chip (SoC) designs before they are manufactured. Its clients were major semiconductor and electronic systems companies. EVE's business model involved the sale of both specialized hardware platforms and the accompanying software, aiming to make emulation technology more accessible to design teams with varying budgets. The company's main product line was the ZeBu (Zero Bug) family of emulators. These systems, based on commercial Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), offered a distinct alternative to the custom silicon-based emulators from larger competitors. The ZeBu platform was designed for speed and capacity, enabling engineers to perform hardware verification, hardware/software integration, and embedded software validation much faster than with traditional simulation methods. Key features included the ability to handle multi-million gate designs, a reconfigurable testbench, and interfaces for standard software debuggers.

EVE's journey included an acquisition of Tharas Systems in 2007 to bolster its offerings. The company demonstrated significant growth, becoming profitable and aiming to be a top-five player in the EDA market by 2012. This trajectory culminated in its acquisition by Synopsys, Inc. in October 2012. The acquisition integrated EVE's emulation technology and engineering team into Synopsys's broader verification platform, combining it with simulation, debug, and prototyping solutions to offer a more comprehensive portfolio to the market.

Keywords: hardware-assisted verification, SoC verification, Electronic Design Automation, HDL acceleration, hardware emulation, ZeBu emulator, Luc Burgun, FPGA-based emulation, semiconductor design, hardware-software co-verification, pre-silicon testing, logic synthesis, design verification, embedded software validation, Synopsys acquisition, circuit emulation, verification IP, EDA tools, ASIC verification, system-on-chip validation