PSL/SVA Assertions In SPICE


Assertion-based verification is a key aspect of any complete SoC or Silicon Realization flow. In this paper, we discuss how PSL (Property Specification Language)/SVA (System-V erilog Assertions) assertion semantics are extended for the first time to SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis)-level netlists and evaluated within a SPICE simulator, and present multiple examples an... » read more

Traversing The Abstraction Landscape


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Back in the early days of semiconductor design engineers could count the number of transistors on their chip with their own two eyes. They designed and worked at the same level of design abstraction when doing the timing analysis. Tools were SPICE-like, maybe abstracted with slightly simpler timing models than the SPICE-level transistor models. Thanks to Moore’... » read more

Consortium Results (Part 3 of 3): 20nm FDSOI Comes Out Way Ahead


The results of the most recent SOI Consortium benchmarking study detail the interest of planar FD-SOI as early as the 28nm and 20nm technology nodes, in terms of performance, power and manufacturability. This 3-part blog series looks further at some of the implications. ~~ The SOI Industry Consortium announcement at the end of the year provided silicon proof that FD-SOI handily bea... » read more

FD-SOI – Consortium Results (Part 2 of 3): Power and Performance


The results of the most recent SOI Consortium benchmarking study detail the interest of planar FD-SOI as early as the 28nm and 20nm technology nodes, in terms of performance, power and manufacturability. This 3-part blog series looks further at some of the implications. ~~ Fully depleted transistor architectures such as Planar FD-SOI, FinFETs (which is also a fully-depleted technolog... » read more

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