Clock power is rarely the issue teams expect to limit advanced-node designs. Yet in many chips today, over-driven clock networks quietly consume disproportionate power, reduce thermal headroom, and can constrain achievable frequency. And all while passing traditional sign-off checks and often remaining locked in through… Read More
Author: Mike Gianfagna
The Risk of Not Optimizing Clock Power
Taming Advanced Node Clock Network Challenges: Jitter
Clock jitter rarely fails in obvious ways. In advanced-node designs, its impact is often indirect, emerging through subtle timing uncertainty, interaction with power delivery noise, and compounding effects across large clock networks. These behaviors can quietly erode margin and predictability, even when conventional… Read More
Taming Advanced Node Clock Network Challenges: Duty Cycle
As process nodes advance, circuit behavior becomes progressively more challenging to analyze and predict. Few systems reflect this challenge more clearly than the clock network. These large, complex networks no longer behave as ideal digital signals. Instead, they operate as distributed electrical systems shaped by non-linear… Read More
Siemens EDA Illuminates the Complexity of PCB Design
As heterogeneous multi-die design becomes more prevalent, the focus on advanced analysis has predictably shifted in that direction. While these challenges are important to overcome, we shouldn’t lose sight of how complete systems are built. Short and long reach communication channels, system-level power management and … Read More
Webinar: Why AI-Assisted Security Verification For Chip Design is So Important
It is well-known that AI is everywhere, and the incredible power of this new technology is enabled by highly complex, purpose-built silicon. But there is a silent enemy of this substantial, world-changing progress. Something that has the power to steal a bright future from all of us. The hardware root of trust for those advanced… Read More
How vHelm Delivers an Optimized Clock Network
In a prior post, I discussed how the clock is no longer just another signal at advanced nodes. Indeed, it is the most critical network on the chip. An optimized clock network can be the margin of victory for your next design. But extracting these benefits is challenging. The clock network is quite sensitive, and optimization can come… Read More
A Webinar About Electrical Verification – The Invisible Bottleneck in IC Design
Electrical rule checking (ERC) is a standard part of any design flow. There is a hidden problem with the traditional approach, however. As designs grow in complexity, whether full-custom analog, mixed-signal, or advanced-node digital, the limitations of traditional ERC tools are becoming more problematic. This can lead to… Read More
Superhuman AI for Design Verification, Delivered at Scale
There is a new breed of EDA emerging. Until recently, EDA tools were focused on building better chips, faster and with superior quality of results. Part of that process is verifying and debugging the resultant design. Thanks to ubiquitous AI workloads and multi-chip architectures, the data to be verified and debugged is exploding,… Read More
ClockEdge Delivers Precision, Visibility and Control for Advanced Node Clock Networks
At advanced nodes, the clock is no longer just another signal. It is the most critical and sensitive electrical network on the chip, and the difference between meeting performance targets and missing the tape-out often comes down to a few picoseconds, buried deep inside the clock distribution network. Yet many design teams still… Read More
A Tour of Advanced Data Conversion with Alphacore
There is always a lot of buzz about advanced AI workloads at trade shows. How to train them and how to run them. Advanced chip and multi-die designs are how AI is brought to life, so it was a perfect fit for discussion at a show. But there is another side of this discussion. Much of the work going on in AI workloads has to do with processing… Read More
The Foundry Model Is Morphing — Again