Does Power Analysis Need To Be Accurate?


The mere mention of accuracy in power analysis and optimization today can trigger a contentious discussion, even among typically reserved engineers. What is needed and where? Which tools are truly as accurate as claimed? And how much accuracy is actually needed for power analysis, [getkc id="112" kc_name="estimation"], and optimization? First of all, the accuracy required really depends o... » read more

Optimization Challenges For 10nm And 7nm


Optimization used to be a simple timing against area tradeoff, but not anymore. As we go to each new node the tradeoffs become more complicated, involving additional aspects of the design that used to be dealt with in isolation. Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss these issues with Krishna Balachandran, director of product management for low-power products at [getentity id="22032"... » read more

Implementation Limits Power Optimization


Implementation is still the step that makes or breaks power budgets in chip design, despite improvements in power estimation, power simulations, and an increase in the number of power-related architectural decisions. The reason: All of those decisions must be carried throughout the design flow. “If implementation decides to give up, then it doesn't really matter at the end of the day,” s... » read more

Big Data Meets Chip Design


The amount of data being handled in chip design is growing significantly at each new node, prompting chipmakers to begin using some of the same concepts, technologies and algorithms used in data centers at companies such as Google, Facebook and GE. While the total data sizes in chip design are still relatively small compared with cloud operations—terabytes per year versus petabytes and exa... » read more

Rightsizing Challenges Grow


Rightsizing chip architectures is getting much more complicated. There are more options to choose from, more potential bottlenecks, and many more choices about what process to use at what process node and for which markets and price points. Rightsizing is a way of targeting chips to specific application needs, supplying sufficient performance while minimizing power and cost. It has been a to... » read more

Power Management Heats Up


Power management has been talked about a lot recently, especially when it comes to mobile devices. But power is only a part of the issue—and perhaps not even the most important part. Heat is the ultimate limiter. If you cannot comfortably place the device on your face or wrist, then you will not have a successful product. Controlling heat, at the micro and macro levels, is an important asp... » read more

Analyzing The Integrity Of Power


Power analysis is shifting much earlier in the chip design process, with power emerging as the top design constraint at advanced process nodes. As engineering teams pack more functionality and content into bigger and more complex chips, they are having to deal with more complex interactions that affect everything from power to its impact on signal integrity and long-term reliability. That, i... » read more

Power Integrity Optimization Cuts RF Substrate Noise


Our main focus is on dynamic voltage drop at 16-14-10nm and beyond, but the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) prompted me to share some silicon measurement results that are relevant to the RF design community. Normally, power integrity (PI) is looked at in the time domain, but in this work we looked at it from a frequency spectrum perspective. Silicon measurements prove how shaping the dynam... » read more

SCREAMER: A Demonstrator Chip For Spectral Noise Optimization By Clock Latency Scheduling


This paper outlines the design and measurement of a 130 nm test chip named SCREAMER for reducing the digital switching noise in synchronous circuits. Clock latency scheduling has been investigated as a means to optimize switching noise in the frequency domain through PDN simulation. Integrated in parallel on the chip are four instances of a test design, each addressing a distinct strategy of cl... » read more

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