A Verilog Simulator Comparison

A Verilog Simulator Comparison
by Daniel Payne on 09-22-2011 at 2:40 pm

Intro
Mentor, Cadence and Synopsys all offer Verilog simulators, however when was the last time that you benchmarked your simulator against a tool from a smaller company?

I just heard from an RTL designer (who wants to remain anonymous) about his experience comparing a Verilog simulator called CVC from Tachyon against ModelSim… Read More


AMS Design, Optimization and Porting

AMS Design, Optimization and Porting
by Daniel Payne on 09-19-2011 at 2:35 pm

AMS design flows can follow a traditional path or consider trying something new. The traditional path goes along the following steps:
[LIST=1]

  • Design requirements
  • Try a transistor-level schematic
  • Run circuit simulation
  • Compare the simulated results versus the requirements, re-size the transistors and go back to step 3 or
  • Read More

    Tanner EDA Newsletter – Fall 2011

    Tanner EDA Newsletter – Fall 2011
    by Daniel Payne on 09-15-2011 at 10:47 am

    logo top

    From the President: Another Great YearThanks to innovative, cost-effective technology and excellence in customer support, we’ve just ended fiscal year 2011 (on May 31st) with solid growth. Revenue was up 8%, we added 139 new customers, and we’re continuing to reach out to technology partners for MEMS and for the analog and mixed-signalRead More


    Hardware Configuration Management approach awarded a Patent

    Hardware Configuration Management approach awarded a Patent
    by Daniel Payne on 09-13-2011 at 11:21 am

    Hardware designers use complex EDA tool flows that have collections of underlying binary and text files. Keeping track of the versions of your IC design can be a real issue when your projects use teams of engineers. ClioSoft has been offering HCM (Hardware Configuration Management) tools that work in the most popular flows of: … Read More


    Another Up Year in a Down Economy for Tanner EDA

    Another Up Year in a Down Economy for Tanner EDA
    by Daniel Payne on 09-13-2011 at 11:00 am

    Almost every week I read about a slowing world economy, yet in EDA we have some bright spots to talk about, like Tanner EDA finishing its 24th year with an 8% increase in revenue. More details are in the press release from today.

    I spoke with Greg Lebsack, President of Tanner EDA on Monday to ask about how they are growing. Greg has been… Read More


    Manufacturing Analysis and Scoring (MAS): GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics

    Manufacturing Analysis and Scoring (MAS): GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics
    by Daniel Payne on 09-05-2011 at 3:37 pm

    Last week GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics presented at the Tech Design Forum on how they collaborated on a third generation DFM flow. When I reviewed the slides of the presentation it really struck me on how the old thinking in DRC (Design Rule Checking) of Pass/Fail for layout rules had been replaced with a score represented… Read More


    Transistor Level IC Design?

    Transistor Level IC Design?
    by Daniel Payne on 08-26-2011 at 1:23 pm

    If you are doing transistor-level IC design then you’ve probably come up against questions like:

    • What Changed in this schematic sheet?
    • How did my IC layout change since last week?

    In the old days we would hold up the old and new versions of the schematics or IC layout and try to eye-ball what had changed. Now we have an automated… Read More


    Third Generation DFM Flow: GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics

    Third Generation DFM Flow: GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics
    by Daniel Payne on 08-26-2011 at 11:17 am

    calibre yield analyzer

    Introduction
    Mentor Graphics and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have been working together for several generations since the 65nm node on making IC designs yield higher. Michael Buehler-Garcia, director of Calibre Design SolutionsMarketing at Mentor Graphics spoke with me by phone today to explain how they are working with GLOBALFOUNDRIESRead More


    Aug 25th in Fremont, CA – Hands on Calibre workshop: DRC, LVS, xRC, ERC, DFM

    Aug 25th in Fremont, CA – Hands on Calibre workshop: DRC, LVS, xRC, ERC, DFM
    by Daniel Payne on 08-18-2011 at 10:30 am

    I’ve blogged about the Calibre family of IC design tools before:

    Smart Fill replaced Dummy Fill Approach in a DFM Flow
    DRC Wiki
    Graphical DRC vs Text-based DRC
    Getting Real time Calibre DRC Results with Custom IC Editing
    Transistor-level Electrical Rule Checking
    Who Needs a 3D Field Solver for IC Design?
    Prevention is BetterRead More


    Solido – Variation Analysis and Design Software for Custom ICs

    Solido – Variation Analysis and Design Software for Custom ICs
    by Daniel Payne on 08-15-2011 at 7:11 pm

    Introduction
    When I designed DRAM chips at Intel I wanted to simulate at the worst case process corners to help make my design as robust as possible in order to improve yields. My manager knew what the worst case corners were based on years of prior experience, so that’s what I used for my circuit simulations.… Read More