% render "layouts/guides.html" do

Origen was initially conceived to be a pattern generator and as you would
expect it provides
powerful APIs to generate tester patterns from your device models.
These APIs endeavour to abstract as much of the underlying ATE API as possible
so that quite often all that is required to switch ATE platforms is to change
the tester model instantiated by the environment.

With Origen, an application can also easily create custom tester
drivers which (for example) can be used to generate patterns in a format that
can be run on
the bench (as a J-Link command file for example) or in a functional
simulation - basically generating your pattern as a Verilog stimulus file.

Origen is a simulation-less pattern generation tool and it is therefore very
quick and lightweight compared to more traditional simulation-based pattern generation
workflows.
When combined with the growing number of quality [Origen plugins](<%= path "plugins" %>)
that are available to provide common hardware (e.g. JTAG) and protocol drivers
(e.g. ARM Debug, Nexus), the speed of pattern development that can be
achieved with Origen is unrivaled. With a bit of practice you can literally go from
nothing to a working pattern for a new application within 10 minutes.

#### Use Simulations for What They Are Good At

Simulations still have their place, after all they are the only way to get pre-silicon
feedback on whether a given pattern will actually work or not.
An Origen-based workflow can still make heavy use of simulations for pre-silicon
validation of test IP, however the downsides of requiring a simulation to actually
generate a pattern (workflow complexity, slow generation times) are removed.

This leads to much quicker turn around of pattern changes, which means that they can be regenerated
in real time while debugging on the tester.

<img src="<%= path "img/pattern_workflow.png" %>" style="display: block; margin: auto; width: 400px; height: 306px;">

% end