Electromagnetic Analysis and Signoff: Cost Savings


By Nikolas Provatas and Magdy Abadir We are often asked by SoC design teams about the benefits of an electromagnetic analysis and signoff methodology. Here is an overview of some of the big “cost savings”. Time to Market Savings Utilizing an EM crosstalk analysis and signoff methodology provides designers with an “insurance policy” against the risk of EM coupling in their SOC des... » read more

Process Corner Explosion


The number of corners that need to be checked is exploding at 7nm and below, fueled by everything from temperature and voltage to changes in metal. Lowering risk and increasing predictability of an SoC at those nodes starts with understanding what will happen when a design is manufactured on a particular foundry process, captured in process corners. This is basically a way of modeling what i... » read more

Design Reuse Vs. Abstraction


Chip designers have been constantly searching for a hardware description language abstraction level higher than RTL for a few decades. But not everyone is moving in that direction, and there appear to be enough options available through design reuse to forestall that shift for many chipmakers. Pushing to new levels of abstraction is frequent topic of discussion in the design world, particula... » read more

Searching For A System Abstraction


Without abstraction, advances in semiconductor design would have stalled decades ago and circuits would remain about the same size as analog blocks. No new abstractions have emerged since the 1990s that have found widespread adoption. The slack was taken up by IP and reuse, but IP blocks are becoming larger and more complex. Verification by isolation is no longer a viable strategy at the system... » read more

Backchannel Modeling And Simulation Using Recent Enhancements To The IBIS Standard


Recent enhancements to the upcoming IBIS standard now support backchannel training, enabling IBIS-AMI models to emulate this real-world SerDes behavior. AMI modelers now can incorporate backchannel algorithms into their IBIS-AMI models, automating the optimization of transmitter and receiver equalization settings in the same manner as their actual SerDes hardware devices. This saves system desi... » read more

Merging Verification With Validation


Verification and validation are two important steps in the creations of electronic systems and over time their roles, but how they play together is changing. In fact, today we are seeing a major opportunity for rethinking this aspect of the flow, which could mean the end of them as separate tasks for many of the chips being created. As with many things in this industry, however, squeezing it... » read more

Tech Talk: 5/3nm Parasitics


Ralph Iverson, principal R&D engineer at Synopsys, talks about parasitic extraction at 5/3nm and what to expect with new materials and gate structures such as gate-all-around FETs and vertical nanowire FETs. https://youtu.be/24C6byQBkuI » read more

Signal Integrity Methodology For Double-Digit Multi-Gigabit Interfaces


As data rates for serial link interfaces such as PCI Express (PCIe) Gen 4 move into the double digits, device modeling, interconnect modeling, and analysis methodologies must continue to evolve to address the shrinking design margins and increasingly challenging compliance criteria facing today’s engineers. To mitigate risk and optimize designs, it is critical to move analysis as far upstream... » read more

Preparing For Electromagnetic Crosstalk Challenges


By Magdy Abadir and Anand Raman Electromagnetic (EM) coupling/noise is not a new phenomenon, but increasing bandwidth and decreasing size, along with low-power demands of today’s electronic systems is making EM crosstalk a first order challenge. At clock frequency of 10GHz+ and data rate of 10Gbps+, parasitic inductance and inductive coupling that were previously safe to ignore are no long... » read more

Co-modeling: A Powerful Capability For Hardware Emulation


Understanding co-modeling technology, its impact on verification and validation should be a critical aim for anyone selecting and deploying emulation co-modeling resources. This paper explores how emulation co-modeling — specifically for the Veloce Strato emulation platform from Mentor, a Siemens business — is architected to meet the needs of advanced verification and validation. To rea... » read more

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