Streamlining Complex Semiconductor Designs With IP-XACT-Based Structured Assembly

Semiconductor design is rapidly evolving because technologies such as AI and machine learning (ML) applications push the boundaries of complexity and specialization. Modern chips require hundreds or thousands of IP blocks, leading to significant design challenges. Multi-die architectures, which distribute functional blocks across multiple dice, demand expert planning to ensure connectivity and performance. To address these challenges, structured assembly methodologies complemented by IP-XACT standards have become essential to provide a clear chip design framework.

Importance of structured assembly methodologies

Structured assembly methodologies offer a clear road map to navigate the challenges of complex semiconductor design by providing guidelines for integration and design management with rapid iteration. This approach manages the intricate connections between numerous IP blocks, reducing the risk of errors and enhancing overall design integrity. Complex designs incorporate IP blocks from both internal and external sources, necessitating consistent interfaces. They also facilitate global collaboration by offering a single source of truth environment with a common framework and standards, sharing accurate and up-to-date information with all team members to ensure a correctly implemented design.

Additionally, these techniques support the creation of derivative designs and RTL restructuring through continuous integration, allowing for quick updates and efficient development. This is achieved through a repeatable process to unify all design activities, enabling build and integration flow to quickly and safely adapt to changes. This approach ensures higher productivity and quality with a consistent end-to-end design flow solution.

The need for IP-XACT

Standards like IP-XACT 2022 are crucial in structured assembly, providing a common language and guidelines for managing IP blocks, which are essential for effective integration and automation. The updates in the standard accommodate more complex systems with the enhanced support of SystemVerilog features like the SystemVerilog interfaces or struct. Automation improves efficiency by streamlining repetitive and error-prone tasks, allowing companies to focus on higher-level design challenges and innovation. Continuous integration flows benefit from automation with the solid API to access all the design data in a robust scripting environment. This unified methodology is used by all teams, maximizing collaborative work and data accuracy, enabling quick updates and derivative development, and ensuring robust, portable, and reliable design processes amidst growing complexity.

Design flow in structured assembly

To provide a systematic approach to managing the automated flow and leveraging SoC connectivity information, Arteris offers a powerful combination of Magillem Connectivity and FlexNoC 5 interconnect IP to address the demands of semiconductor design. Together, this solution delivers a comprehensive and highly efficient approach. This flow ensures that the entire process, from conception to execution, is streamlined and error-free when addressing complex design challenges.

Magillem Connectivity offers comprehensive solutions encompassing system-on-chip (SoC) integration, hardware/software interface definition, and collateral support functions. These capabilities ensure the seamless integration of many types of IP blocks, enabling streamlined design processes and maintaining high levels of efficiency and reliability. Design cycle time is decreased by up to 30% for large designs with thousands of instances.

FlexNoC 5 interconnect IP complements these efforts by providing advanced network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP. This technology enhances overall design effectiveness by ensuring data flows smoothly and efficiently between the numerous IP blocks within a chip. FlexNoC 5 is designed to meet the demands of advanced applications, such as high data throughput and low latency.

The collaboration between Magillem Connectivity and FlexNoC 5 exemplifies an automated approach to structured assembly, as shown in figure 1. Initially, a basic NoC structural description is exported from FlexNoC 5. This description is then imported into Magillem Connectivity, where the designer can add socket names, protocol types, initiator and target designations, and signal widths from the SoC project database. Once updated, this information is exported back to FlexNoC 5 to finalize the NoC interface definitions. This workflow ensures that all necessary connectivity information is accurately managed and updated across tools, supporting efficient design processes and enhancing the structured assembly methodology.

Fig. 1: Streamlining SoC connectivity using Magillem Connectivity and FlexNoC 5. (Source: Arteris)

Conclusion

The semiconductor industry is at a crossroads where traditional design methods can no longer meet modern application demands. Structured assembly methodologies address the challenges of increased complexity, diverse IP sources, and tight schedules. These methodologies quickly become indispensable for companies striving to stay competitive in this dynamic landscape. Leading semiconductor firms are already leveraging structured assembly for their most complex designs, and it is only a matter of time before these practices become the industry standard. By providing a systematic approach to managing complexity, ensuring proper connectivity, and facilitating collaboration across distributed teams, structured assembly is transforming semiconductor design and execution.

Arteris Magillem Connectivity and FlexNoC 5 interconnect IP, built on years of experience and innovation, offer essential technology to manage the complexities of modern semiconductor design. These technologies effectively handle the complexity of tiled subsystems and multi-die architectures, prevalent in AI, many-core compute and graphics cores. Additionally, Arteris‘ solutions ensure consistent and efficient integration of a growing diversity of IP sources, both internal and external. These products streamline design processes, minimize errors, and boost overall efficiency, making them ideal for the industry’s future.