Concept2Silicon Systems (C2SiS) is focused on providing complete solutions for complex SoC and System designs with best in class engineering capabilities and most cost-efficient business model. Our highly capable engineering team has experience in delivering 200+ silicon and system design solutions to its customers in … Read More
Cadence Virtuoso 6.1.5 and ClioSoft Hardware Configuration Management – Webinar Review
Introduction
Cadence and ClioSoft made a webinar recently and I’ll summarize what I learned from it.
What’s New from Cadence in Virtuoso 6.1.5
- Back2Basics (28nm rule integration, Skill improved with object-oriented, OASIS support, HTML Publisher, Waveform re-written for better Analog support, smaller Waveform
A New Hierarchical 3D Field Solver
Introduction
3D field solvers produce the most accurate netlists of RC values of your IC layout that can then be used in SPICE circuit simulators however most of these solvers produce a flat netlist which tends to simulate rather slowly. Thankfully several years ago the first hierarchical SPICE tools were offered by Nassda (HSIM… Read More
Electro-static Discharge (ESD)
Electro-static discharge (ESD) has been a problem since the beginning of IC production. Chips function on power supplies of up to a few volts (depending on the era) whereas ESD voltages are measured in the thousands of volts. When you reach out for your car door handle and a spark jumps across, that is ESD. If you were touching a chip… Read More
Adjusting Custom IP to Process Changes
A High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) IP core was being implemented in an advanced process technology. This fairly large and complex analog mixed-signal (AMS) IP comprising over 130K devices was close to being finalized and shipped to the customer. But many design rules at the foundry were unexpectedly changed from… Read More
Shakeup at Mentor Graphics
Reading the title you guessed it right, Mentor Graphics has three new board members today from the slate offered by billionaire activist Carl Icahn:
- José Maria Alapont, chief executive of the auto parts maker Federal-Mogul
- Gary Meyers, a director of the chip maker Exar
- David Schechter, an executive at Mr. Icahn’s investment firm
How Good is Your Verification?
The traditional way for analyzing the effectiveness of testing in the software world and in the RTL world is code coverage. Make sure that every line of code is executed. This is a pretty crude measure since even 100% code coverage doesn’t mean that all the condition has really been tested but it is certainly necessary–after… Read More
SOC Realization: How Chips Are Really Designed
If you just casually peruse most marketing presentations by EDA companies, you’d come to the conclusion most SoCs are designed from scratch, wrestlilng the monster to the ground with bare hands. But the reality is that most SoCs consist of perhaps 90% IP blocks (many of them memories). That still leaves the remaining 10% … Read More
Cadence EDA360 is Paper!
Hard to believe a year has gone by since the big announcement of the Cadence Blueprint toBattle ‘Profitability Gap’; Counters Semiconductor Industry’s Greatest Threat! Having spent more time on it that I should have, here is my opinion on EDA360 on its first anniversary.
Richard Georing did a very nice anniversary piece “Ten Key… Read More
40nm to 28nm Migration Success Story
The problem:To move dual-port SRAM library and macros from a 40nm process to a 28nm process. In addition to all the changes between two different foundry processes, the 28nm rules are disruptive and incompatible with the previous rules. The memory corecells (foundry-specific) would also need to be completely replaced.
Current… Read More
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