IR drop analysis across your board, package and SoC ensures that your Power Delivery Network (PDN) is robust, and that your system will function to spec. There are both static and dynamic approaches to IR drop analysis of a full-chip with billions of transistors, while the dynamic approach produces the most accurate results compared… Read More
Tag: soc design
Speeding Design Closure at DAC
At DAC you can measure buzz by how many people are crowded into your booth. I saw a crowd at the Oasys booth, so stopped to take in their 10 minute overview presentation. Here’s what I learned.… Read More
Should You Buy All Aspects of Your IP From a Single Supplier?
Interface IP typically consists of multiple layers, most importantly a PHY (level 1) analog (or mixed signal) block that handles the interface to the outside world and a number of levels of digital controllers. The interfaces between all these levels, especially between the PHY and the controller, is often defined by the interface… Read More
Interconnect Optimization of an SoC Architecture
My last chip design at Intel was a GPU called the 82786and the architects of the chip wrote a virtual prototype using the MAINSAIL language. By using a virtual prototype they were able to:
- Simulate bus traffic, video display and video RAM
- Determine throughput
- Measure latency
- Verify that bus priorities were working
- Optimize the
Help, my IP has fallen and can’t get up
We’ve been talking about the different technologies for FPGA-based SoC prototyping a lot here in SemiWiki. On the surface, the recent stories all start off pretty much the same: big box, Xilinx Virtex-7, wanna go fast and see more of what’s going on in the design. This is not another one of those stories. I recently sat down with Mick… Read More
An Approach to 20nm IC Design
Last month at DAC I learned how IBM, Cadence, ARM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung approach the challenges of SoC design, EDA design and fabrication at the 20nm node. Today I followed up by reading a white paper on 20nm IC design challenges authored by Cadence, a welcome relief to the previous marketing mantra of EDA 360.
Here’s… Read More