Modeling On-Chip Variation At 10/7nm


Simulation, a workhorse tool for semiconductor design, is running out of steam at 10/7nm. It is falling behind on chips with huge gate counts and an enormous number of possible interactions between all the different functions that are being crammed onto a die. At simulation's root is some form of SPICE, which has served as its underpinnings ever since SPICE was first published 44 years ago. ... » read more

Massively Parallel Electrically Aware Design


In-design verification is opening new opportunities to shorten design cycles and maximize circuit performance. Whereas physical verification has traditionally required a tradeoff between accuracy and performance for larger designs, recent advances in large-scale distributed computing may offer an alternative. Cloud infrastructure needs are pushing the industry toward larger multi-core server ar... » read more

Bringing Electrical Info To Design’s Forefront


By Ann Steffora Mutschler To reflect the impact on transistors of smaller process nodes and the electrical effects that occur as a result, a shift is underway where the electrical analysis and verification that used to be done when the layout was complete is moving earlier in the design process. The analysis includes parasitic extraction of interconnect and device parasitics, electromigrati... » read more