San Jose, California-based Compass Design Automation Inc has introduced a suite of commercially available software tools that will enable designers to use graphical elements, as well as lines of programming code when designing ASICs, application-specific integrated circuits: using the ASIC Navigator Design System software, designers can use a combination of graphical and text specifications, to create single or multiple-chip ASIC systems; the company calls this process graphical synthesis, and the Navigator software allows designers to use a top-down design methodology when designing a single chip or system; the system will be available to beta sites in the first quarter of 1992, and full release is scheduled for the next quarter.
