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What products shown at CES will drive electronics and semiconductor growth in 2012?

What products shown at CES will drive electronics and semiconductor growth in 2012?
by Bill Jewell on 01-17-2012 at 11:20 am
Categories: Events, Semiconductor Intelligence

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week in Las Vegas, Nevada was the largest in history, with over 3,100 exhibitors and over 153,000 attendees – over 20% international. Hopefully this was a good sign of a solid recovery in the electronics and semiconductor industries. The major Japanese and Korean consumer electronics companies had huge display areas: Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, LG, Panasonic, and Sharp. Emerging Chinese company Haier also had a large display. A few semiconductor companies put up large booths including Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Marvell and Silicon Image. Several other semiconductor companies had smaller booths or meeting rooms.

At the back of the South Hall were several tiny booths which reminded me of the Texas State Fair – not the food booths where they fry anything that doesn’t move, but the booths with all sorts of gizmos designed to fill needs you did not know you had. One CES booth had electronic gadgets to sooth your various aches and pains. Another booth had models in bikinis. (Maybe they thought it was a boat show?)

The products on the display floors included newer versions of current devices: large screen LCD and 3D televisions, smartphones, media tablets, ultrabook PCs, digital cameras, etc. Some advanced products which are year or two away from introduction included glasses-free 3D TVs and TVs with over 4 times the resolution of HDTV. Many interesting products for niche application included a GPS locator for dogs and head mounted video cameras for extreme sports junkies.

The key question is: What devices will drive growth in consumer electronics and semiconductors in 2012?

In the opening keynote, Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs said emerging countries will drive growth in smartphones since mobile is the only way to connect to the internet in many countries. CNET’s session proposed the Next Big Thing in consumer electronics will be the ecosystem – getting various devices to work together simply and effectively.

The Consumer Electronics Association – which puts on the CES– projects three categories will drive growth in 2012 (as measured in U.S.dollars). Home IT and Security growth of 5.6% in 2012 will be driven by media tablets, which were the key driver in 2011. In-vehicle Entertainment is the only category expected to show significant growth acceleration in 2012, 11.9%versus 7.4% in 2011, driven by internet radio and streaming audio. Portable communication growth of 14.3% in 2012 will be primarily from smartphones.Overall consumer electronics growth in 2012 is forecast at 3.7%, less than half of the 7.9% growth in 2011.

DIGITIMES Research of Taiwan projects smartphone unit growth of about 40% in 2012 to over 650 million units, following growth around 60% in 2010 and 2011. Media tablet shipments are forecast to grow 60% in 2012 to over 95 million units.

Over 20,000 new products were introduced at CES, a sign that innovation in the industry is alive and well. Many of these products are new and improved versions of existing products. Others represent new product categories which could drive new niche applications or potentially become major products in the next few years. However for 2012, growth will likely be driven by the same products which have driven growth for the last couple of years.

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Silicon IP has taken over CAE in EDAC results… showing how bad have been analyst in forecasting the IP market!

Silicon IP has taken over CAE in EDAC results… showing how bad have been analyst in forecasting the IP market!
by Eric Esteve on 01-16-2012 at 8:10 am
Categories: Uncategorized
2 Comments

Thanks to Paul, who has shared EDAC resultsfor Q3 2011, we can see that Silicon IP has definitely passed CAE revenue! It does not appears clearly ($410 million for IP, 566.7 for CAE), but when you consider that ARM, among many other IP vendors, is not part of EDAC, it’s easy to see that SIP revenue is higher than CAE (ARM revenue for 2010 were $632 million; just add $158 million to $410 and you are done).

In fact, the important figure in this report is the 37.4% yearly growth rate.

That reminds me the presentation made during IP-SoC 2010, by a respected analyst firm, showing a forecasted growth for Design IP (or SIP, it’s the same) in the years 2011 to 2014 as follow:

  • +6% in 2011,
  • then +2.3% in 2012,
  • +6.7% in 2013
  • and 6.9% in 2014

My reaction was to post this blogin Semiwiki as I knew that this figures were far too low. When I say “I knew”, I mean some common sense had driven me to think about all the factors pushing for a higher growth rate. Let’s see the parameters:

  • Microprocessor IPis 90% royalty based; the more SoC in production, the higher the revenue. Smartphone shipments are rocketing (40% growth rate in 2010, then 2011) and uP IP, dominant in mobile phone, is also penetrating the embedded world (Set-Top-Box, HDD, SSD, DVD…). Expected growth rate in this IP segment only is probably 15% CAGR for 2011-2015; at least!
  • Interface IP(USB, HDMI, MIPI, DDRn…) will pass from $250 million in 2010 to $450 million in 2014; that’s a 13% CAGR.
  • Now, if we look at market trends, less tangible, we see that more ASIC/ASSP design starts are System on Chip (SoC), calling for more interfaces with the rest of the system (USB, PCIe, SATA, MIPI…), with memory (DDRn Controller) and more functions to be integrated, with, at best, the same number of engineers. The “make vs buy” question is quickly answered: there is not enough resource to design the numerous functions.
  • Another trend is for a chip maker to concentrate on internally developing the real differentiating IP functions, not the standard based interfaces functions or the memories.
  • And to develop a SoC with an even more aggressive Time To Market(TTM) requirement. Once again, the answer is frequently an externally sourced Design IP.
  • To be honest, I should mention one point: the design start count is decreasing by 2 to 3 % every year. Paradox? Apparently, but if you dig, you realize that a higher proportion of design start is a SoC, and every design is integrating more functions…

So, you think: “one analyst has been wrong, that is not a casus belli!” I totally disagree! That’s a big deal! Why? Just have a look at what could be a virtuous circle:

Analyst Forecast of a certain market –> Financial decision makers identify this market to be fast growing –> Funding are easier to find to develop a company addressing a fast growing market

You will agree that, if analyst are making a 600% error (6% forecasted for actual being 37.4%) the virtuous circle is biased, and even more, is becoming a vicious circle! When analyst do not identify a high growth market, the decision makers, or VC, will not inject money at a place where they should do it. As an example, take the fabless market: since everybody (at least the MBAed) is talking about $50 million to invest to develop a SoC, which is true, but only true for 40nm or below, the fabless can’t get VC attention. But, there are numerous chips (mixed-signal, PMIC, niche ASSP and so on) which could be developed using 130nm or 90nm, at a few $ million cost, and could generate decent profit. Because an analyst brain is small (by definition), the guy will automatically associate Fabless with $50-100 million development cost, and pass! I am severe, as you have a better chance to find a more cleaver analyst when the company is built around people who have a real industry experience before joining! Like ABI research, for example (I am too modest to name IPNEST).

By the way, we had another example of this vicious circle last week-end: France and other European countries have lost their AAArank, after USA last summer. Thanks to analysts, the same guys who have assigned AAA to junk bonds in 2007, leading to the crisis in 2008-2009 and leading later the central bank in USA, to loan $1,200 billion at 0.01% to the banks, to save them from bankruptcy (the same has also occurred in Europe). The degradation of the AAA has been the way analyst and bankers have thanked the federal state (USA) or the state (France) for their loan. I tell you, analyst is the best job to do (if you plan to destroy the realeconomy)!

From Eric Esteve– IPNEST(Market analysis and Consulting – IP focus)

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ARM vs Intel? Just look at ARM Top Customer in 2010!

ARM vs Intel? Just look at ARM Top Customer in 2010!
by Eric Esteve on 01-16-2012 at 3:47 am
Categories: Arm, Intel Foundry, IP

Looking at the ARM Top Ten customers list (for 2010) brings useful information about the volumes production generated by the chip makers involved in the wireless handset segment. Revenue for an ARM licensee comes from upfront license and royalties. Upfront license are in the few $ million range (max), when the below listed contribution from ARM’ customers are in few dozen of million $ (4% of $631M makes $25M). We can reasonably guess that the contributions are made at more than 90% by royalties. Another estimate is to make the assumption that these are mostly generated in the wireless handset segment. As a matter of confirmation, you can search for Atmel or NXP in this list (both are selling ARM based micros, but are not covering the wireless handset). You don’t see them? That’s normal; ARM revenue in wireless handset is (still) the most important share, even if the company desires to increase their position in the embedded market (22 billion chips in 2010). According with ARM annual report for 2010:

  • “Our partners reported shipping over six billion ARM processor-based chips in 2010.”
  • “On average there are now 2.5 ARM processor-based chips in every mobile phone handset.”

As the shipments of mobile phone handset were 1,250 million in 2010, more than three billion ARM processors (not chips) have been shipped in the wireless handset segment. This is consistent with the 62% reported by ARM for unit shipment in the mobile segment. See below ARM’ solution for smartphone:

In first approximation, ARM customer list ranked by contribution should gives good information about the smartphone and wireless handset market. It also provides some big surprise!

  • Intel 7.0%
  • TSMC 5.7%
  • Samsung 5.7%
  • TI 4.6%
  • NEC 3.5%
  • ST 3.5%
  • ZTE 2.8%
  • Broadcom 2.6%
  • AMD 2.5%
  • Infineon 2.4%
  • Apple 2.1%
  • Qualcomm 2.0%
  • Fujitsu 1.9%
  • UMC 1.9%
  • Lenovo 1.8%

Let’s address the surprise first. Intel was ARM largest customer in 2010! As I don’t think Intel is using ARM core to address the wireless handset, and because Intel/Infineon deal is dated August, 30[SUP]th[/SUP] 2010 (too late to have an impact; anyway Infineon is listed), these royalties should come from another segment. If anybody knows which this segment is, please let me know!

The number 2 customers, ex-aequo, are TSMC and Samsung. TSMC result is not a real surprise, as the company is undisputed foundry leader. In fact, I am surprised not to see TSMC share being higher. My guess is that the chip makers involved in wireless handset tend to deal directly with ARM. Qualcomm (fabless) and Apple appearance in the list tends to confirm this. Samsung ranking is more interesting. This is not the foundry division, processing Apples A4 chips, which brings this revenue level: Apple is ranked as a contributor. No, this is Samsung the chip maker, challenging Intel, who generates this high level of royalties, coming from wireless handset, set-top-box, DVD and Blue-Ray players and probably more segments. See below ARM’ solution for STB:

Let’s have a look at the wireless handset strong players now: TI, ZTE, ST, Broadcom, Infineon, Qualcomm, NEC and Apple. Even if some of them are also playing in the consumer electronic field, marketing SoC for Set-Top-Box or DVD players/recorders (NEC, Qualcomm, Broadcom, ST), no doubt that the most important part of their contribution is coming from wireless handset. These are the results for 2010, at that time the Media Tablet shipments were marginal (in the dozens of million units, to be compared with the 1.25 billion handset shipments). Most of the contributors are playing in the wireless segment: nine out of thirteen companies and we can guess that the contributions from UMC and TSMC are generated by some chips targeting this segment as well.

Within wireless handset segment, the contributions coming from the application processor targeting the smartphone are certainly very high: this is a 300 (million) x $25 (Apps Proc. ASP) = $7.5 billion market. I don’t know the level of royalties paid by the chip makers, but a 2% level would generate $150 million contribution (or almost 25% of ARM revenues in 2010). As we are expecting a 45% growth rate in 2011, with 440 million smartphone shipment, even if ASP decrease to $20, that makes a $9 billion market… and a $180 million royalty contribution to ARM.

But, the real surprise is the contribution coming from Intel, AMD and Lenovo. We know that this is not the main PC processor, but these companies all target in priority the PC segment, so where are these ARM processor used? It may be used in the hard disk drive segment (see above picture), as ARM is claiming 85% penetration in this market? Any hint is welcome!

From Eric Esteve– IPNEST

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CES 2012 Trip Wrap-Up!

CES 2012 Trip Wrap-Up!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-15-2012 at 4:00 pm
Categories: Events


The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the premier electronics gadget exposition, a window into what we will be spending our hard earned money on next Christmas. Personally, I go to CES every year to try and guess what new innovative technology will drive future semiconductor design and manufacturing. Last year I bet on tablets and lost. This year there was really nothing to bet on.

You can find my CES 2012 trip report with pictures HERE. Post a CES related comment on my trip report thread and qualify to win an iPad2. The winner will be chosen one week from today. I use my iPad2 every day, and you will too, believe it!

The first smartphone was introduced in 1992, I bought my first Blackberry in 2003, but it wasn’t until 2007 when the first Apple iPhone was launched that smartphones really started to drive the semiconductor industry. Tablets were all the CES rage last year, even I got caught up in the frenzy and bought two dozen iPad2s as gifts from SemiWiki. Unfortunately, other than the iPad2 and Kindle Fire, all other tablets suffered a quick and expensive death.Tablet + Cloud = Success!

The most interesting smartphone I saw this year was the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows phone. I still do not trust Google/Android as a viable alternative to iOS so I hope Microsoft is serious about the mobile market. Congratulations to Nokia for taking the Windows phone challenge, probably the best decision I have seen them make in years. The last thing we need is more Android derivatives.

I finally replaced my iPod and Blackberry with an iPhone 4s last year. One thing I was looking for at CES was a replacement for my iPhone and iPad2 which I found in the Samsung Galaxy Note. I was actually allowed to hold one and it was incredibly light! No heavier than my iPhone 4s. Here is an Engadget review of it for more detailed information. Unfortunately it’s from Samsung and I do not buy Samsung products willingly. In fact, Samsung was fined again for price fixing TVs with LG. Dumping, price fixing, IP theft, I will have none of that in my house.

TV’s were big this year, having spent much of my time in the Samsung booth trying to figure out what an OLED (organic light emitting diode) TV is. A few years back I saw plasma TVs at CES and went out and bought a 63” Fujitsu plasma for around $8,000. Other than consuming way too much power it still gives my family a brilliant picture. OLED TV is a likely replacement for my Plasma but probably not until my Fuji dies and assuming it can scale to 60” without costing $8,000. And the so called smart TVs were actually pretty dumb, I’ll wait for Apple Siri TV. 3D TV is still haunting CES but is still cursed with those ugly glasses and big price tag.


The only other thing that caught my consumer eye was the Ultrabooks. I seriously considered buying a MacBook Air last year to replace my aging laptop but ended up with a Dell XPS. I did not want to deal with the software differences between Windows and Mac OS. I got the 8 hour battery and really enjoy being untethered when I travel or I’m at home. The downside is that it weighs too much for my aging shoulder. If all goes well, my family will get Ultrabooks for Christmas!

Unfortunately, the above mentioned products are upgrades to existing markets versus a new product market like the iPhone or iPad. The show was huge and chaotic so let me know what I missed in the comment section.

Post Comments HERE for a chance at an iPad2!

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#49 Design Automation Conference Deadlines

#49 Design Automation Conference Deadlines
by Paul McLellan on 01-14-2012 at 10:53 pm
Categories: EDA, Events

Note that there are several DAC deadlines coming up in the next couple of weeks.

The deadline for user track submissions is January 17th (next Tuesday). Submission requires an extended abstract. See here for details.

The deadline for DAC workshops is January 19th (next Thursday). A proposal is required. See here for details.

The deadline for the P.O. Pistilli Scholarship is February 1st. There is an application form to be filled in. See here for details.

As always, the DAC website is at dac.com and the DAC blog is at blog.dac.com where, if you don’t get your fill of my writing here, you can get even more of it.

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Thanks to Linkedin members: 24 “Like” given to “Interface Protocols, USB3, HDMI, MIPI… the winner and losers in 2011”

Thanks to Linkedin members: 24 “Like” given to “Interface Protocols, USB3, HDMI, MIPI… the winner and losers in 2011”
by Eric Esteve on 01-14-2012 at 12:53 pm
Categories: IP

Just because it seems that the likes given to: Interface Protocols, USB3, HDMI, MIPI… the winner and losers in 2011 were numerous, I decided to count it.

Twenty-four likes received, in 11 Linkedin groups (see below), that’s good! Very goos! Thanks to all of you… And most probably thanks to IPNESTfor the quality of the data.

If you did not read this post, it maybe the right time to do it! You will find many, many useful information about USB 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort, MIPI and more



Eric Estevefrom IPNEST

And now the list:

Semiconductor Wiki Project (www.SemiWiki.com )

Pascal Lo Ré, Jan Willis like this

Semiconductor – VLSI

Cheng Kuan Yin, Kanak Rajput and 1 other like this

Processor/SoC/Systems Architecture, RTL Design Professionals

BAHLOUL Skander likes this

Texas Instruments

Chen Song Chaw Chen Song likes this

Microelectronics Network

Stephane Cordova, Mike Engbretson and 1 other like this

China Semiconductor Professional Network 中国集成电路专业人士协会

Steve Cheng likes this

High Speed Interface Design Professionals

Suto Hiroyuki, Michael Baker and 2 others like this

ANALOG MIXED SIGNAL

Roland MOBEANG, Kevin Ho like this

Semiconductor – Sales & Marketing

Chuck Dube likes this

Chuck Dube • Any thoughts on wireless HDMI (or whatever it’s called). Basically, the 60Ghz or so wireless interface between displays and video equipment. It seems 802.11ac? may be a contender.

Franz Dugand • The soon to be released 802.11ac may be the leading technology for wireless video streaming in the coming years. It has new features tailored for video streaming, and is using 5GHz band, so less crowded than 2.4GHz, and less expensive/challenging than 60GHz. Backward compatible with 802.11n, 802.11ac will probably be very popular in TV, STB and DVD players, those equipment being more and more connected to the internet.

MIPI Alliance

Michael Herz, Thierry Campiche and 3 others like this

VERIFICATION IP – VIP
Mehul Kumar likes this

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The Innovator’s Dilemma Dagger Aimed at AMD and nVidia’s Heart

The Innovator’s Dilemma Dagger Aimed at AMD and nVidia’s Heart
by Ed McKernan on 01-13-2012 at 1:42 pm
Categories: Arm, Foundries, Intel Foundry, IP

There is one semiconductor company that for the last 3 years has outperformed ARM and more than doubled in stock price relative to Apple. They are everywhere but barely known to most. The success of this company in the coming year though could result in the leveling of AMD and nVidia as they try to adjust to the economics of the mobile Tsunami, which means the commoditization of application processors. The company is Imagination Technologies, whose graphics IP is in many mobile processors including Apple’s ARM family and Intel’s latest Atom processors.

Clayton Christensen described in his book the Innovators Dilemma the difficulty and reluctance that companies have of going into new markets that effectively cannibalize existing high margin businesses. One of the examples that Christensen focuses on is the disk drive industry in which every few years a new leader would emerge to displace the previous leader who was focused on maximizing its market share and profits instead of forging ahead with an eventual replacement. One of the key drivers of the replacement was a smaller form factor device (higher density was always understood to be a requirement).

What happens however, to Christensen’s model when in the midst of a massive increase in graphics capability there is a clash with an even greater force called personal mobility (or ultra mobility). The shift from desktop to notebook happened over many years and was considerably more gradual than what we have seen in just the last 4 years when the Internet was placed in the palm of one’s hand with the Smartphone. The first order of business for Apple, Samsung, HTC and others has been to shoehorn all the electronics in an area that has no tolerance for excessive heat. Something had to give.

Open any souped-up desktop PC with the latest AMD or nVidia graphics card and you realize that the cooling infrastructure has overshot that of the processor and indeed it is a supercomputer. The massive R&D budgets employed by AMD and nVidia are intended to win the gamers and then over a couple of Moore’s Law generations trickle down to the notebook, tablet and then Smartphone.

In typical, Innovator’s Dilemma fashion, Imagination Technologies has come from the ground up to challenge AMD and nVidia’s from the rear in an area that both are trying to catch up. This will be difficult for both to do because of the head start that Imagination Technologies has had in licensing its technology to Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, TI and Samsung. Indeed ARM feels threatened. Against this array of competitors, nVidia sits alone. The company has seen revenue more than double over the past three years and operating profit margins exceed that of AMD and nVidia by a wide margin. You could say that the Innovator’s Dilemma formula has been extended to take into account how an IP business model is superior to a Fabless Business Model.

Intel’s push in the very slim ultrabook form factor is already reducing nVidia and AMD’s share in the PC space. With Imagination Technologies licensing its graphics technology to the Fab players (Intel, Samsung and yes Apple – I consider them virtual fab) there is a squeeze on nVidia and AMD from above and below. All of this was driven by a major form factor shrinkage in PCs and Smartphones that was unforeseen just a few years ago but is dramatically reshaping the industry.

For AMD to survive, I believe they have to become an IP design House for Google, Samsung, Qualcomm, Amazon, HTC or other major player. Pure Fabless, with no shared investment, is no longer a model that survives up against the Fab Titans: Intel and Samsung. Companies must move to one side or the other: IP House or Fab Focused. If I can make a play of words on Jerry Sanders famous quote: Real Men Have Fabs or Real Men Live in IP Houses.

I find it interesting that in all of this transformation, Intel has decided that it needs Imagination Technologies for its low end Atom. Another sign that Paul Otellini believes Intel’s future value is really based on process technology and not chip architectures. Intel has never been able to keep up with nVidia on graphics but it way outperforms TSMC in process development. Imagination Technologies is able to give nVidia a run for its money in the graphics space and as a result have outperformed them financially. As a comparison over the past three years, nVidia’s revenue has been flat and is down since 2007 – perhaps a sign that the cliff is near.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am Long AAPL, INTC, QCOM, ALTR

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Needham growth conference

Needham growth conference
by Paul McLellan on 01-13-2012 at 6:00 am
Categories: EDA

One of the fun things when a company gets big but is still private, like Atrenta, is that you start to get invited to events like the Needham Growth Conference that took place earlier this week in New York. When I ran Compass Design Automation, which at the time was about $55M in revenue, I remember going to a couple of these events. At one level this seems like a pointless exercise since nobody can buy the stock. But there are actually two reasons that analysts should be interested. Firstly, when a company gets big enough, it can have an effect on the results of the other companies in the industry that are public. And secondly, when the company is big enough it starts to be plausible that it might have an IPO in the future, and an analyst who has a good understanding of the industry should not be hearing about it for the first time on the roadshow.

So this week, Bert Clement, the CFO of Atrenta was at the Needham conference for his 15 minutes of fame (plus 5 more for questions). Of course the audience is primarily financial types so the focus is not so much on Atrenta’s technology. Just getting the audience to understand that you are in EDA and which part you serve is enough of a challenge.

So what did Bert say. Firstly, that Atrenta is focused on SoC realization where it is really the only company today, and SpyGlass is pretty much the standard. They have 170 customers including 19 of the top 20 semiconductor companies. They have had eight consecutive years of revenue growth, are profitable and growing. They should do about $45M this year and margins are growing over time. So they are one of the largest and healthiest private EDA companies. They have over 300 employees with over 200 in R&D.

SoC Realization actually occupies an interesting niche in the spectrum of EDA areas. Below SoC realization is classic EDA, tools to build the actual SoC. This has single digit growth and is experiencing consolidation of suppliers (Synopsys/Magma being the most significant). Above SoC Realization is system design. It has double digit growth but the market is very fragmented and has a low TAM as a result. In the middle, SoC Reallization has double digit growth, an expanding supplier base of IP and IP companies, and is fuelled by the need for consumer products that incorporate a lot of IP to build very complex SoCs (think smartphones and tablets).

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EDAC reports Q3

EDAC reports Q3
by Paul McLellan on 01-12-2012 at 7:49 pm
Categories: EDA

EDAC (EDA consortium) market statistics service announced the data for Q3 of 2011. Revenue increased 18.1% (versus 2010) to $1543.9 million. Sequentially (versus Q2) revenue increase 7.4%. Annualized, that puts EDA at over $6B for, I belive, the first time ever. Wally Rhines, who is EDAC chair (and CEO of Mentor) commented that “growth was exceptionally robust across the board, in every product category and every region.”

Breaking it down:

  • CAE revenue was $566.7 million (10.5% up on Q3 2010)
  • IC physical design and verification was $338.3 million (16% up on 2010)
  • PCB and MCM was $140.3 million (up 11.6% on 2010)
  • Semiconductor intellectual property, or what we usually just call IP, was $510 million (up a huge 37.4% from last year)
  • Services was $88.7 million (up 13.1% on 2010)

By region the numbers were all up too:

  • North America purchased $706.7M of products and services (up 22.4% on 2010)
  • Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) was $257.9 million (up 14.9% on 2010)
  • Japan was $256.9 million (up 11.1% on 2010)
  • APAC was $322.4 million (up 17.6% on 2010)

Historically Q4 is the biggest quarter, with year-end budgets available and salespeople’s quota plans going into overdrive. Cadence is first to report since their financial year ended at the end of the calendar year. Synopsys, Mentor and Magma are all offset.


The EDAC Market Statistics Service page is here.

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Advanced Memory Cell Characterization with Calibre xACT 3D

Advanced Memory Cell Characterization with Calibre xACT 3D
by SStalnaker on 01-12-2012 at 7:18 pm
Categories: EDA, Siemens EDA

Advanced process technologies for manufacturing computer chips enable more functionality, higher performance, and low power through smaller sizes. Memory bits on a chip are predicted to double every two years to keep up with the demand for increased performance.

To meet these new requirements for performance and power, memory designers must increase bit density while satisfying exacting specifications for fast data transfer and low power consumption. Unfortunately, higher density increases the interactions among interconnects and devices, making it harder to ensure that memories will meet all specifications and be manufacturable with high yield. Ultimately, this means that more accurate characterization than ever before is required at every step of memory design.

Traditional extraction methods used for memory designs have proven unable to address these challenges, either because they are too slow, or are not accurate enough, or both. Memory designers need tools that can help them analyze parasitic issues accurately and quickly at every stage of the physical design cycle, from basic building blocks to the full chip.

A fast field solver, such as Calibre xACT 3D, can be used to apply boundary conditions on a bit cell (Figure 1). By specifying a closed boundary for the cell, the designer can improve parasitic extraction and simulation accuracy, as well as performance for a symmetric design. Using boundary conditions, bit cell geometries are effectively modeled as a reflected or periodic repeated pattern on all sides of the boundary, at the same distance. This allows the designer to extract a single bit cell accurately without having to construct an array.

Figure 1: Application of boundary conditions on a cell

This modeling technique enables designers to radically speed up their characterization process and realize a design that performs to their specification. For example, using Calibre xACT 3D, we extracted a bit cell in 4 seconds, whereas a popular reference-level field solver required 2.15 hours. The total capacitance of the nets extracted from the bit cell compared very closely to the reference results.

Using fast field solver technology like Calibre xACT 3D at all stages of memory design, from bit cell design to full chip sign-off, ensures a robust design that will work to specification when it is manufactured.

To read the complete white paper, click here.

Leave a comment or contact Claudia Relyea if you would like to discuss how Calibre xACT 3D can help your company ensure the successful and timely development of high-performance, low-power memory designs at advanced nodes.