CDC Verification: A Must for IP and SoCs

CDC Verification: A Must for IP and SoCs
by Pawan Fangaria on 03-12-2015 at 1:00 pm

In the modern SoC era, verification is no longer a post-design activity. The verification strategy must be planned much earlier in the design cycle; otherwise the verification closure can become a never ending problem. Moreover, verification which appears to be complete may actually be incomplete because of undetected issues… Read More


A Group of Happy Employees that Excels in Everything They Do!

A Group of Happy Employees that Excels in Everything They Do!
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-13-2015 at 9:00 am

I visited AtrentaNoida in August 2013 during the inauguration of its newly expanded facility. At that time, I had written about the beautiful environment Atrenta has, with its presence at many sites across the world in my blog – “Innovation + Thoughtful Management = Productive Expansion”. Innovation cannot happen without happy… Read More


How to Optimize for Power at RTL

How to Optimize for Power at RTL
by Daniel Payne on 11-30-2014 at 7:00 pm

Last week I was traveling in Munich attending the MunEDA User Group meetingso I missed a live webinar on the topic of optimizing for power at RTL. I finally got caught up in my email this week and had time to view this 47 minute webinar, presented by Guillaume Boilletof Atrenta. He recommended using a combination of automatic, semi-automatic… Read More


Improve Test Robustness & Coverage Early in Design

Improve Test Robustness & Coverage Early in Design
by Pawan Fangaria on 11-03-2014 at 5:00 pm

In a semiconductor design, keeping the design testable with high test coverage has always been a requirement. However with shrinking technology nodes and large, dense SoC designs and complex logic structures, while it has become mandatory to reach close to 100% test coverage, it’s extremely difficult to cope with the explosion… Read More


A Complete Scalable Solution for IP Signoff

A Complete Scalable Solution for IP Signoff
by Pawan Fangaria on 10-20-2014 at 7:00 am

In an SoC world driven by IP, where an SoC can have hundreds of IP (sourced not only from 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party but also from internal business units which can have a lot of legacy) integrated together, it has become essential to have a comprehensive and standard method to verify and signoff the IP. Additionally, these checks must … Read More


Finding Logic Issues Early that Impact Physical Implementation

Finding Logic Issues Early that Impact Physical Implementation
by Daniel Payne on 10-16-2014 at 7:00 am

Complex SoC project teams typically use a divide and conquer approach where specialized engineers work in separate domains, like front-end or back-end. The five major engineering tasks for IC design can be described as: RTL design, synthesis, floor planning, place and route, then finally design analysis.

What if you could detect… Read More


A Complete Timing Constraints Solution – Creation to Signoff

A Complete Timing Constraints Solution – Creation to Signoff
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-28-2014 at 10:00 pm

With the unprecedented increase in semiconductor design size and complexity design teams are required to accommodate multiple design constraints such as multiple power domains for low power design, multiple modes of operation, many clocks running, and third party IPs with different SDCs. As a result timing closure has become… Read More


Automatic RTL Restructuring: A Need Rather Than Convenience

Automatic RTL Restructuring: A Need Rather Than Convenience
by Pawan Fangaria on 08-22-2014 at 5:00 pm

In the semiconductor design industry, most of the designs are created and optimized at the RTL level, mainly through home grown scripts or manual methods. As there can be several iterations in optimizing the hierarchy for physical implementation, it’s too late to do the hierarchical optimizations after reaching the floor plan… Read More


An Approach to Clock Domain Crossing for SoC Designs

An Approach to Clock Domain Crossing for SoC Designs
by Daniel Payne on 07-06-2014 at 12:20 am

Blogger Pawan Fangaria wrote about Clock Domain Crossing(CDC) a few weeks ago, and so I followed up tonight and watched a webinarabout CDC presented by Ravindra Anejaof Atrenta. An RTL design engineer would ultimately want a CDC verification tool that offers:

  • Fast throughput and thoroughness
  • Ability to debug and fix the source
Read More

SpyGlass CDC: A Comprehensive solution for addressing CDC issues

SpyGlass CDC: A Comprehensive solution for addressing CDC issues
by Pawan Fangaria on 06-19-2014 at 7:30 am

About a decade ago, semiconductor designs had just a few asynchronous clocks which were easily managed by designers through the process of manual design reviews. The situation today is completely different. An SoC can have hundreds of asynchronous clocks, driving different complex functions, spread across various IPs, supplied… Read More