Case Study: Ricoh achieves optimized multicore MFP SoC performance, cost savings and a 3-month schedule reduction with Synopsys Platform Architect MCO

Ricoh Optimizes New Multi-Function Printer SoC Architecture with Synopsys Platform Architect MCO

Ricoh, a global technology company known for office imaging and document solutions, faced the challenge of designing a next‑generation multicore SoC for a multi‑function printer that consolidated three previous chips into one. The team needed to predict dynamic application performance early, optimize the multicore architecture for the right balance of performance, power, and cost, avoid over‑design, and keep hardware and software development tightly coordinated while maintaining independence from ASIC vendors.

Ricoh employed Synopsys Platform Architect MCO, Virtualizer, the ARM TLM library and CoStart services to build an early virtual platform, model realistic workloads before software was available, and rapidly explore interconnect and memory configurations. This approach uncovered issues sooner, avoided late rework, enabled parallel hardware/software development and full verification (integrated with VCS and ZeBu), and reduced the schedule by about three months while improving predictability and deployment rates.

Ricoh

Naoya Morita

Embedded Platform Development Department