Accellera Preps New Standard For Clock-Domain Crossing


Part of the hierarchical development flow is about to get a lot simpler, thanks to a new standard being created by Accellera. What is less clear is how long will it take before users see any benefit. At the register transfer level (RTL), when a data signal passes between two flip flops, it initially is assumed that clocks are perfect. After clock-tree synthesis and place-and-route are perfor... » read more

Achieve 10X Faster CDC Debug Leveraging Machine Learning


Over the years, system-on-chip (SoC) design sizes have crossed the billion-gate mark. Higher complexity has been introduced within semiconductor designs to deliver desired functionality. The number of asynchronous clock and reset domains is growing heavily within these complex SoCs, leading to millions of clock domain crossing (CDC) violations at the SoC level. Each of these violations ... » read more

Raising IP Integration Up A Level


An increase in the number and complexity of IP blocks, coupled with changing architectures and design concerns, are driving up the need for new tools that can enable, automate, and optimize integration in advanced chips and packages. Power, security, verification and a host of other issues are cross-cutting concerns, and they make pure hierarchical approaches difficult. Adding to future comp... » read more

Formal Verification Ensures The Perseverance Rover Lands Safely On Mars


By Joe Hupcey III and Kevin Campbell Safely landing a spacecraft anywhere on Mars is a complex, high-risk challenge. Even worse, the most scientifically interesting areas of the planet are guarded by boulders, ditches, and tall cliffs — land formations that aren’t very welcoming to vehicles. Such was the case with the Mars Perseverance Rover's Landing Site: Jezero Crater. It’s not an e... » read more

Clocks Getting Skewed Up


At a logical level, synchronous designs are very simple and the clock just happens. But the clocking network is possibly the most complex in a chip, and it's fraught with the most problems at the physical level. To some, the clock is the AC power supply of the chip. To others, it is an analog network almost beyond analysis. Ironically, there are no languages to describe clocking, few tools t... » read more

Early Simulation Of Multi-Cycle Paths And False Paths


Designing with synchronous clocks avoids metastability issues on clock domain crossings, but it presents its own challenges when multi-cycle and false paths are involved. A multi-cycle path (MCP) occurs when a logical function requires more than one clock cycle to produce a final, stable result. The designer must ensure that the destination register does not clock until the result is ready. Thi... » read more

An Integrated Approach To Power Domain And CDC Verification


Reducing power consumption is essential for both mobile and data center applications. Yet it is a challenge to lower power while minimally impacting performance. The solution has been to partition designs into multiple power domains which allow selectively reducing voltage levels or powering off partitions. Traditional low power verification validates only the functional correctness of power... » read more

Taming Non-Predictable Systems


How predictable are semiconductor systems? The industry aims to create predictable systems and yet when a carrot is dangled, offering the possibility of faster, cheaper, or some other gain, decision makers invariably decide that some degree of uncertainty is warranted. Understanding uncertainty is at least the first step to making informed decisions, but new tooling is required to assess the im... » read more

An Integrated Approach To Power Domain And Clock Domain Crossing Verification


Reducing power consumption is essential for both mobile and data center applications. The challenge is to lower power while minimally impacting performance. The solution has been to partition designs into multiple power domains which allow selectively reducing voltage levels or powering off partitions. Traditional low power verification validates only the functional correctness of power control... » read more

An Integrated Approach To Power Domain And Clock Domain Crossing Verification


Reducing power consumption is essential for both mobile and data center applications. The challenge is to lower power while minimally impacting performance. The solution has been to partition designs into multiple power domains which allow selectively reducing voltage levels or powering off partitions. Traditional low power verification validates only the functional correctness of power control... » read more

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