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Nanometer Circuit Verification: The Catch-22 of Layout!

Nanometer Circuit Verification: The Catch-22 of Layout!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-19-2011 at 8:00 pm

As analog and mixed-signal designers move to very advanced geometries, they must grapple with more and more complex considerations of the silicon. Not only do nanometer CMOS devices have limitations in terms of analog-relevant characteristics such gain and noise performance, but they also introduce new sources of variation… 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

    PVT and Statistical Design in Nanometer Process Geometries

    PVT and Statistical Design in Nanometer Process Geometries
    by Daniel Nenni on 09-18-2011 at 9:00 am

    On Sept 22, 2011, the nm Circuit Verification Forumwill be held in Silicon Valley, hosted by Berkeley Design Automation. At this forum, Trent McConaghy of Solido DA will present a case study on the TSMC Reference Flow 2.0 VCO circuit, to showcase Fast PVT in the steps of extracting PVT corners, verifying PVT, and doing post-layout… Read More


    Fast Track Seminars

    Fast Track Seminars
    by Paul McLellan on 09-15-2011 at 6:11 pm


    Atrenta’s SoC realization seminars, “Fast Track Your SoC Design” have started.The first one was in Ottowa last Tuesday, and it was a full house. In a straw poll, most of the attendees acknowledged facing IP handoff and quality issues. The keynote speaker was Dr Yuejian Wu, director of ASIC development at Infinera… Read More


    Phil Bishop and marketing at Magma

    Phil Bishop and marketing at Magma
    by Paul McLellan on 09-15-2011 at 4:59 pm

    Earlier in the week I met with Phil Bishop, who is the corporate VP of worldwide marketing at Magma.

    I started by asking him where he came from. He originally started as a designer at Motorola in microprocessors and microcontrollers. Then he moved to Silicon Compiler Systems (remember them?) who ended up being acquired by Mentor.… Read More


    Tanner EDA Newsletter – Fall 2011

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

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    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


    Simulating in the Cloud

    Simulating in the Cloud
    by Paul McLellan on 09-13-2011 at 1:43 pm

    Yesterday I met with David Hsu who is the marketing guy for Synopsys’s cloud computing solution that they announced at their user-group meeting earlier this year. It was fun to catch up; David used to work for me back in VLSI days although he was an engineer writing place and route software back then.

    David admits that this is… Read 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


    When analog/RF/mixed-signal IC design meets nanometer CMOS geometries!

    When analog/RF/mixed-signal IC design meets nanometer CMOS geometries!
    by Daniel Nenni on 09-13-2011 at 9:22 am

    In working with TSMC and GlobalFoundries on AMS design reference flows I have experienced first hand the increasing verification challenges of nanometer analog, RF, and mixed-signal circuits. Tools in this area have to be both silicon accurate and blindingly fast! Berkeley Design Automation is one of the key vendors in this … Read More