EDA Topics

June 1, 2010

Application-specific library subsetting

The limited cell count of standard cell libraries is restricting the performance that designs can achieve without resorting to expensive and time-consuming techniques. This article describes the addition of extended cell libraries and novel synthesis tools to a traditional RTL-to-GDSII flow in a new methodology that helps to overcome this performance brake. The technique is [...]
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June 1, 2010

Winning the power and temperature battle with ESL exploration

The analysis of important power and temperature metrics for chip design is becoming increasingly inefficient when attempted at the register-transfer level. The article proposes the fundamentals of a system-level modeling strategy that will shrink design times, provide more opportunities for architectural exploration, and deliver significant power savings.
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June 1, 2010

First fabless, now labless

Product engineering services can be efficiently outsourced and even the biggest players are doing it, says Michel Villemain
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June 1, 2010

A matter of timing

We talked to Mentor Graphics CEO Wally Rhines about the solutions that already exist to combat increasing design complexity.
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June 1, 2010

Fully grounded

Disneyland might be next door, but DAC 2010 is stressing a real-world perspective on chip design. We spoke to general chair Sachin Sapatnekar.
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June 1, 2010

Usability made flesh

As usual, this issue includes our regular preview of the Design Automation Conference (DAC), taking place this year in Anaheim, California (June 13-18). However, given this journal’s particular focus on practical design information, I wanted to highlight one DAC strand up front. Indeed, given that the event has taken more than its share of criticism [...]
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May 1, 2010

Manufacturability and yield toward 22nm

This year's Design Automation and Test in Europe conference heard from a broad range of users and suppliers about the challenges to and solutions for getting optimal yields at advanced process nodes, particularly as the industry advances toward 22nm. This article recaps presentations by four executives at the Dresden-hosted event: Pierre Garnier of Texas Instruments, [...]
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May 1, 2010

Extending critical area analysis to address design for reliability

The time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) of inter-metal dielectrics on large-scale chips is becoming an increasingly important reliability issue across several semiconductor markets. This mechanism can cause early failures in use and is difficult to detect by traditional test, and hard to control by traditional reliability techniques.
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May 1, 2010

Using advanced planarity analysis to drive smarter filling strategies

Designers have been using dummy fill to address design for manufacturing for some time, but the process of simply wallpapering shapes into a design's "white space" to help it maintain planarity can no longer cope with the complex challenges presented at today's advanced process nodes. Not only is planarity harder to maintain, but there are [...]
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May 1, 2010

Using DFM for competitive advantage

The article offers a case study of the DFM planning and methodology applied during a shrink of Cambridge Silicon Radio's UF6000 system-on-chip from the 130nm to 65nm.

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