Company
Breker Verification Systems solves the challenges of functional verification for complex system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs containing one or more embedded processors. Our TrekSoC product is proven in production at leading semiconductor companies. It enables design managers and verification engineers to realize measurable productivity gains, speed coverage closure and easily reuse verification knowledge.
TrekSoC helps customers develop intuitive models to describe the verification space, and then use these models to automatically generate SoC tests including stimulus and expected results. Customers can begin testing much earlier - even before RTL is finished - and expand incrementally to get more complete coverage.
Breker has grown steadily, supporting diverse design groups at leading-edge SoC companies. Our dynamic team shares one vision to drive the evolution of SoC verification technology with a single-minded focus on our customers' success.
Breker is a venture-backed company headquartered in Silicon Valley. The following Breker-authored articles provide more information on different aspects of the company:
SOCcentral: Yes, Virginia, There Is a Stitch-and-Ship
Yes, SOC full-chip verification is a challenging problem and teams are not allocated enough resources to hand-write all the tests it would like. Automatically generating multi-threaded self-verifying C test cases for one or multiple embedded processors allows a small team to perform full-SOC verification in a time short enough to satisfy the most demanding SOC schedules. Read more
Real Talk Blog: SoC Verification Can be Cold as Ice
A solution catching on within development teams is known as graph-based scenario models that capture intended behavior of the IP blocks. These can be combined to create scenario models for major subunits or the complete SoC, where they can automatically generate self-verifying C test cases to run on multiple heterogeneous embedded processors within the SoC. Read more
Chip Design: It's Time to Refine the EDA Acronym and Maybe DAC, Too!
I'd say it's high time to redefine the 'EDA' acronym, expand its reach and grow the market. And while we're at it, let's rename DAC as well. 'Design' does not even begin to encompass what it takes to develop a chip, board or electronic system. Read more
Electronic Engineering Times: SoC Verification is Growing Up Fast
We will witness soon the emergence of SoC verification solutions that include randomization for the automated generation of complex test cases that run in the SoC's embedded processors. Coverage views that better represent system behavior and support a more sophisticated SoC verification plan are coming soon. Read more
Eletronic Engineering Times: Stitch and Ship Will Sink Your Chip Every Time
Stitch and ship doesn't work for systems integrators and is a lousy strategy for SoC verification as well. Much like a systems integrator's template, development teams should develop a SoC verification methodology that exercises a wide range of functional scenarios, encompassing cross-interactions and covering all points of convergence. Read more
Electronic Engineering Times: Verification is the Key Entrepreneurial Opportunity
Let's turn our attention to the opportunities for a hardworking, creative and enterprising individual who sees a future in solving the verification challenge. The semiconductor industry has many unsolved verification problems and clearly there's a gap in verification coverage. That makes verification an exciting market where one key opportunity stands out in my mind -- that is, system-level verification. Read more
Electronic Engineering Times: Biz Strategy beyond Gates & Jobs
No one can give you a fool-proof prescription on what to do for your success. Instead, several indigenous factors will define which strategy will work for you. Whichever path you choose, stick to it, follow through with everything you have and there is a higher likelihood that you will get over to the other side of the chasm of uncertainty. Read more
Texas Enterprise: 3 Tenets: Choosing a Strategy
If you have a first mover advantage on the kind of product you are bringing to market, and if your market research proves that it is a game-changer and an outlier in the solution space in your target market, you are bringing to market a revolutionary product that can afford you more of a choice of an execution strategy. Read more
Electronic Engineering Times: Character Traits of a CEO
As a member of the board of directors for several small EDA suppliers, including Breker Verification Systems, I'm often asked what character traits make a good CEO. I think there are several, most notably being humble and having the ability to ask and listen to the answers. A CEO who thinks that he or she has all the answers is a recipe for disaster. Read more
Electronic Engineering Times: Bootstrapping as a Business Strategy
We have built Breker on a similar principle, setting ourselves apart from the typical high-tech start-up standard of raising a lot of money to go figure out if a viable product can be built and the raise a whole lot more money to create hype around the product. Breker remains a case in point for the value of bootstrapping as a management practice as we remain one of the few surviving start-ups of our 'generation' in our industry. Read more
Gabe on EDA: Breaking Systems at DAC
When multiple processors and many different types of IP are involved, methodologies in use for block-level verification break down. That is precisely where we step in to break systems and find tricky system-level bugs before tapeout. More and more companies are hitting the verification wall and looking to Breker for help. I fully expect this trend to continue. Read more
Electronic Engineering Times: Managing Change
Creating a contingency plan, such as financial and operational buffers, investing in business development and creating strategic partnerships at all layers of a company, is important. Having the ability to react constructively to change is an intangible asset. Read more
Texas Enterprise: 3 Tenets: Getting it Done
At its core, business is about creating value that someone is willing to pay for. It is about keeping an eye on the operational details that let you wake up the next morning and focus on continuing to create that value. It is about taking pride in the work that you do and the difference you think you make. Read more
Electronic Engineering Times: EDA's Entrepreneurial Capital
Traditionally, much of the growth in EDA has been driven by innovation brought to market by entrepreneurial ventures. Yet wherever we turn these days, there are naysayers who downplay the potential of EDA. Read more
Real Talk Blog: Avoiding the Titanic-Sized Iceberg of Downton Abbey
The solution for verifying an SoC is only now becoming clear since block-level testbench-based verification has been proven to be ineffective for SoC designs containing embedded processors. Complex SoC use cases that cross multiple concurrent applications with shared resources and on-board power and clocking management systems offer up an overwhelming number of possible scenarios.
Texas Enterprise: 3 Tenets: Bootstrapping as a Business Strategy
It is always interesting to see such ideas catch fire, especially when they are based on simple common sense. Bootstrapping is a smart business move, period. It manages risks at every level, starting from the business owner, employees to the end user. Read more
Texas Enterprise: 3 Tenets: Navigating Change for Growth
If there is one thing you need to instill in your organization's work habit, it is the ability to separate the urgent from the important. Business execution and putting out daily fires is necessary but not sufficient. In doing so, you are probably inhibiting your growth as it becomes difficult to anticipate opportunities, let alone prepare for it. Read more
Texas Enterprise: 3 Tenets: Thrive as an Entrepreneur
You have to have unparalleled faith in your product and vision, believe that it creates real value in the market, meeting a real need in your target customers. You have to believe that you are that visionary that sees a pattern in the broader scheme of things others have missed and you see a path to translate that pattern to the market. Read more
