Intro
Massimo Sivilotti, Ph.D of Tanner EDA showed me their 3D field solver in the HiPer PX extraction tool at DAC last week.
Notes
Tool Suites – schematics, layout, SPICE simulation, DRC/LVS
– HiPer PX: 3D Field solvero Layers, dielectrics,
o Finite element analysis
o Boundary element methods
o 2D mode for pattern matching… Read More
Tag: semiconductors
EDA Interoperability at DAC
Intro
My Wednesday breakfast at DAC last week was at the Interoperability event sponsored by Synopsys. The Synopsys moderator was so jovial that he reminded me of Jerry Lewis, I was relieved when the guests gave us an update.
Notes
Interconnect Modeling- Open Source Interconnect Technology Format (ITF)o Used by Star RC
–… Read More
Synopsys IC Validator at DAC
Intro
At DAC last week I visited the Synopsys demo suite to see what’s new with IC Validator.
Notes
Stelios Diamantidis, PMM
– In-design physical verification
– Sign-off reveals thousands of late stage DRC violations
– 28nm has 1.5K rules, 15K runset sizes
– Metal Fill changes timing
– The… Read More
Physical IP Group at ARM
After lunch on Monday I met with John Heinlin, Ph.D. – VP Marketing of Physical IP Division
Back in the day I knew the founders of Artisan (VLSI Libraries) when we worked together at Silicon Compilers (Mark Templeton, John Malecki, Scott Becker).
Q: Do you favor any EDA tools for creating your IP?
A: No, we don’t really endorse a specific… Read More
iPDKs and Analog Constraints
Lunch time Monday at DAC and I learned about what’s new at the IPL Alliance in 2011.
IPL Sponsors: Magma, Mentor Graphics, Springsoft, Accelicon, Ciranova, Synopsys, TSMC, TowerJazz, Jedat, Tanner EDA
Two major projects:
1) iPDKS
2) Analog Constraints… Read More
Magma, ARM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES
Introduction
Monday morning at DAC I attended the breakfast presentation from Magma, ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES. The 28nm node is ready for business using Magma tools and ARM libraries.
During breakfast I met Karim Arabi, Ph.D. from QualComm. He’s a senior director of engineering in San Diego and wanted to learn more about… 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
Apache at DAC
DAC is less than a month away, June 6-8th for the tradeshow, longer depending on what other events you might also be attending. Apache is in booth 2448 (marked in red on the DAC floorplan map.
Many of the presentations at the Apache booth will be customers (such as ARM, Xilinx, ST Ericsson, GlobalFoundries and TSMC) discussing various… Read More
Andrew Yang’s presentation at Globalpress electronic summit
Yesterday at the Globalpress electronic summit Andrew gave an overview of the Apache product line, carefully avoiding saying anything he cannot due to the filing of Apache’s S-1. From a financial point of view the company has had 8 years of consecutive growth, is profitable since 2008, and has no debt. During 2010 when the… Read More
Apache files S-1
Apache Design Solutions today filed their S-1 with the SEC in preparation for its initial public offering (IPO). This is a big deal since there hasn’t been an IPO of an EDA company for may years (Magma was the last 10 years ago). As a private company they have not had to reveal their financials until now.
It turns out that they did… Read More