As semiconductor IP is growing bigger in size and more complex in providing complete solution for a particular functionality in an SoC, regions from across the world are joining to provide various types of services in the overall value-chain of IP development, verification, and its integration into SoCs. … Read More
With every new technology node, there are newer physical effects that need to be taken into account. And every new physical effect brings with itself several new formats to model them. Often a format is also associated with several of its derivatives, sometimes an standard reincarnation of a proprietary format further evolved… Read More
In the first part of this article I wrote about four types of costs which must be considered when an IP goes through design differentiation, customization, characterization, and selection and evaluation for acquisition. In this part of the article, I will discuss about the other five types of costs which must be considered to enhance… Read More
SoC designs are increasingly becoming assemblies of a large number of IP blocks. A well integrated assembly can lead to a successful PPA (Power, Performance and Area) optimized design. However, it is equally important that each IP block is optimized, robust, and integrable in the design. The complexity of an IP and its integration… Read More
Although I knew about Crossfire’s capabilities for signing off quality of an IP before its integration into an SoC, there was much more to learn about this tool when I visited Fractal Technologies booth during this DAC. The complexity handled by this tool to qualify any type of IP for its integration into an SoC can be imagined by the… Read More
I have been observing Fractal Technologiesexhibiting at DACyear after year, and every year they have demonstrated good value added features in their tools for SoC and IP development. This year at 52[SUP]nd[/SUP] DAC Fractal’s booth number is 1110. Earlier in this year Fractal had added a new ‘Cdiff’ feature in its flagship product… Read More
On the face of it, if we consider a simple ‘diff’ utility, it doesn’t need any explanation; almost everyone in our community would have used it. But imagine the CTO of a company investing his time in explaining how beneficial a specialized ‘Cdiff’ function can be in evaluating IP. Today’s SoC design world can’t live without IP and … Read More
In an ever growing world of IPs, it’s essential that a tool which vouches to simplify designer’s job of IP development and help improving its quality remains versatile to encompass various formats, databases, common data models, standard libraries, scripting etc. that are used in the development of IPs and their exchange between… Read More
As the SoCs and IPs grow in sizes and complexities, the number of formats, databases, libraries of standard cells and IOs also increase. It becomes a clumsy task to check every cell in a library, its consistency among various format with respect to functionality, timing, naming, labels and so on, and its complex physical properties… Read More
In the EDA world we use hyphens quite often to describe our technical approaches, like: DFM-aware, Power-aware, Variation-aware. I just read a white papertoday on the topic of Quality-Aware IP Design Flows, written by Fractal Technologies. If your group creates IP or re-uses IP, then there’s always the question about … Read More
