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Calculating timing delay from routed channel length

Hello, i am a student who is studying Allegro tool with SKILL.

I have a question about SKILL axlSegDelayAndZ0. The reference says this function "returns the delay and impedance of a cline segment."

I want to know how many components does this tool consider when calculating timing delay from the length. 

How steep is input signal's rise transition? Is rise transition shape isosceles trapezoid or differential increasing shape?

Also, if it is a multi fan-out, the rise transition time will be different net by net. How can this tool can calculate in this case?

I want to hear answers about these questions.

Thank you for reading this long boring questions, and i will be waiting for answers.




ut

Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength

This is the 21st installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

When all political parties agree on something, you know you might have a problem. Giriraj Singh, a minister in Narendra Modi’s new cabinet, tweeted this week that our population control law should become a “movement.” This is something that would find bipartisan support – we are taught from school onwards that India’s population is a big problem, and we need to control it.

This is wrong. Contrary to popular belief, our population is not a problem. It is our greatest strength.

The notion that we should worry about a growing population is an intuitive one. The world has limited resources. People keep increasing. Something’s gotta give.

Robert Malthus made just this point in his 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population. He was worried that our population would grow exponentially while resources would grow arithmetically. As more people entered the workforce, wages would fall and goods would become scarce. Calamity was inevitable.

Malthus’s rationale was so influential that this mode of thinking was soon called ‘Malthusian.’ (It is a pejorative today.) A 20th-century follower of his, Harrison Brown, came up with one of my favourite images on this subject, arguing that a growing population would lead to the earth being “covered completely and to a considerable depth with a writhing mass of human beings, much as a dead cow is covered with a pulsating mass of maggots.”

Another Malthusian, Paul Ehrlich, published a book called The Population Bomb in 1968, which began with the stirring lines, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” Ehrlich was, as you’d guess, a big supporter of India’s coercive family planning programs. ““I don’t see,” he wrote, “how India could possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980.”

None of these fears have come true. A 2007 study by Nicholas Eberstadt called ‘Too Many People?’ found no correlation between population density and poverty. The greater the density of people, the more you’d expect them to fight for resources – and yet, Monaco, which has 40 times the population density of Bangladesh, is doing well for itself. So is Bahrain, which has three times the population density of India.

Not only does population not cause poverty, it makes us more prosperous. The economist Julian Simon pointed out in a 1981 book that through history, whenever there has been a spurt in population, it has coincided with a spurt in productivity. Such as, for example, between Malthus’s time and now. There were around a billion people on earth in 1798, and there are around 7.7 billion today. As you read these words, consider that you are better off than the richest person on the planet then.

Why is this? The answer lies in the title of Simon’s book: The Ultimate Resource. When we speak of resources, we forget that human beings are the finest resource of all. There is no limit to our ingenuity. And we interact with each other in positive-sum ways – every voluntary interactions leaves both people better off, and the amount of value in the world goes up. This is why we want to be part of economic networks that are as large, and as dense, as possible. This is why most people migrate to cities rather than away from them – and why cities are so much richer than towns or villages.

If Malthusians were right, essential commodities like wheat, maize and rice would become relatively scarcer over time, and thus more expensive – but they have actually become much cheaper in real terms. This is thanks to the productivity and creativity of humans, who, in Eberstadt’s words, are “in practice always renewable and in theory entirely inexhaustible.”

The error made by Malthus, Brown and Ehrlich is the same error that our politicians make today, and not just in the context of population: zero-sum thinking. If our population grows and resources stays the same, of course there will be scarcity. But this is never the case. All we need to do to learn this lesson is look at our cities!

This mistaken thinking has had savage humanitarian consequences in India. Think of the unborn millions over the decades because of our brutal family planning policies. How many Tendulkars, Rahmans and Satyajit Rays have we lost? Think of the immoral coercion still carried out on poor people across the country. And finally, think of the condescension of our politicians, asserting that people are India’s problem – but always other people, never themselves.

This arrogance is India’s greatest problem, not our people.

The India Uncut Blog © 2010 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
Follow me on Twitter.




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IMC : fsm coding style not auto extracted/Identified by IMC

Hi,

I've vhdl block containing fsm . IMC not able to auto extract the state machine coded like this:

There is a intermediate state state_mux  between next_state & state.

Pls. help in guiding IMC how to recognize this FSM coding style? 

 

Snipped of the fsm code:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

               type state_type is (ST_IDLE, ST_ADDRESS, ST_ACK_ADDRESS, ST_READ, ST_ACK_READ, ST_WRITE, ST_ACK_WRITE, ST_IDLE_BYTE);

               signal state : state_type;

               signal state_mux : state_type;

               signal next_state : state_type;

process(state_mux, start)

         begin

               next_state <= state_mux;

               next_count <= (others => '0');

           case (state_mux) is

                 when ST_IDLE => 

                            if(start = '1') then

                                 next_state <= ST_ADDRESS;

                              end if;

            when ST_ADDRESS =>

   …………….

          when others => null;

         end case;

     end process;

 

process(scl_clk_n, active_rstn)

               begin

                      if(active_rstn = '0') then

                           state <= ST_IDLE after delay_f;

                  elsif(scl_clk_n'event and scl_clk_n = '1') then

                             state <= next_state after delay_f;

                            end if;

end process;

 

process(state, start)

               begin

                     state_mux <= state;

               if(start = '1') then

                       state_mux <= ST_IDLE;

                              end if;

               end process;

Thanks

Raghu




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How to remove sessions from vManager without deleting them

I am importing sessions which are run by other people to analyse and I would like to remove them from my vManager Regressions tab as they become obsolete. As I am not the original person who run the sims, I cannot "delete" sessions. What are my options? Thanks.




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Why the Autorouter use Via to connect GND and VCC pins to Shape Plane

Here are two screen capture of Before and After Autorouting my board. Padstacks have all been revised and corrected. The Capture Schematic is correct. All Footprints have been verified after Padstack revision. a new NETLIST generation have been done after some corrections made in Capture. I have imported the new Logic. I revised my Layout Cross Section as such: TOP, GND, VCC, BOTTOM. Both VCC and GND shapes have been assigned to their respective logical GND and VCC Nets (verified). Yet, I still have the Autorouter to systematically use extra vias to make GND and VCC connections to the VCC and GND planes. Where a simple utilisation of the part padstack inner layer would have been indicated. What Im I missing ?




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Error: CMFBC-1 The schematic and the layout constraints were not synchronized

Hi, I am in the middle of a design and had no problem going back and forth between schematics and layout. Now I am getting the error message below. I am using Cadence 17.2.

ERROR: Layout database has probably been reverted to an earlier version than that, which was used in the latest flow or the schematic database was synchronized with another board.

The basecopy file generated by the last back-to-front flow not found.

ERROR: Layout database has probably been reverted to an earlier version than that, which was used in the latest flow or the schematic database was synchronized with another board.

The basecopy file generated by the last back-to-front flow not found.

Error: CMFBC-1: The schematic and the layout constraints were not synchronized as the changes done since the last sync up could not be reconciled. Syncing the current version of the schematic or layout databases with a previous version would result in this issue. The  constraint difference report is displayed.

Continuing with "changes-only" processing may result in incorrect constraint updates.

Thanks for your input

Claudia




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OrCAD PCB Designer Pro w/ PSpice, Design Object Find Filter Greyed Out

Hello All,

I'm currently using OrCAD PCB Designer Professional w/ PSpice (version 16.6-2015).  In the 'Design Object Find Filter' side bar, all options are grayed out and unselectable.  I did attempt to 'Reset UI to Cadence Default' without any luck.  A colleague has no issues with the identical file on his computer.  Any guidance would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

George




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Allegro design entry DHL, pin swaps , export without exporting constraints, back annotate.

Hi,

I have a new customer that uses Allegro Design entry HDL for the schematic and have a few questions.

1. How do you get pin/gate swaps into the symbols in the schematic ?

2. How do you transfer them to the pcb editor ?

3. How do you back annotate the swaps from the pcb editor to the schematic ?

4. How do you stop the export/Import physical from updating the constraints in the pcb file ? 




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Specman Makefile generator utility

I've heard lots of people asking for a way to generate Makefiles for Specman code, and it seems there are some who don't use "irun" which takes care of this automatically. So I wrote this little utility to build a basic Makefile based on the compiled and loaded e code.

It's really easy to use: at any time load the snmakedeps.e into Specman, and use "write makefile <name> [-ignore_test]".
This will dump a Makefile with a set of variables corresponding to the loaded packages, and targets to build any compiled modules.
Using -ignore_test will avoid having the test file in the Makefile, in case you switch tests often (who doesn't?).

It also writes a stub target so you can do "make stub_ncvlog" or "make stub vhdl" etc.

The targets are pretty basic, I thought it was more useful to #include this into the main Makefile and define your own more complex targets / dependencies as required.

The package uses the "reflection" facility of the e language, which is now documented since Specman 8.1, so you can extend this utility if you want (please share any enhancements you make).

 Enjoy! :-)

Steve.




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vr_ad register definition utility

Hi All.

I put together a small Perl script to generate vr_ad register definitions from SPIRIT (IP-XACT) XML.
If you've got not idea what IP-XACT is, have a look here http://www.spiritconsortium.org/, then start pestering your design manager to use it :-)

The script can filter out registers and override R/W access types if needed.

An example XML file is included with the package so that you can play with it, and there's a detailed README.txt as well.

Here's an example of the generated e code:

// Automatically generated from xdmac.xml
// DO NOT EDIT, or your changes may be lost
<'

import vr_ad/e/vr_ad_top;

// Component = XDMAC
// memoryMap = xdmac
extend vr_ad_map_kind : [XDMAC];

// addressBlock = dma_eth
extend vr_ad_reg_file_kind : [DMA_ETH];

extend DMA_ETH vr_ad_reg_file {
keep size == 20;
keep addressing_width_in_bytes == 4;
};

// Register = command
// Reset = 0x00
reg_def COMMAND DMA_ETH 0x0 {
// Field resv3 = command[31:29]
reg_fld resv3 : uint(bits:3) : R : 0 : cov ;
// Field transfer_size = command[28:19]
reg_fld transfer_size : uint(bits:10) : RW : 0 : cov ;
// Field dma_transfer_target = command[18:14]
reg_fld dma_transfer_target : uint(bits:5) : RW : 0 : cov ;
// Field resv2 = command[13:10]
reg_fld resv2 : uint(bits:4) : R : 0 : cov ;
// Field transmit_receive = command[9:9]
reg_fld transmit_receive : uint(bits:1) : RW : 0 : cov ;
// Field resv1 = command[8:5]
reg_fld resv1 : uint(bits:4) : R : 0 : cov ;
// Field dest_address_enable = command[4:4]
reg_fld dest_address_enable : uint(bits:1) : RW : 0 : cov ;
// Field source_address_enable = command[3:3]
reg_fld source_address_enable : uint(bits:1) : RW : 0 : cov ;
// Field word_size = command[2:0]
reg_fld word_size : uint(bits:3) : R : 0 : cov ;
};

// Register = queue_exec
// Reset = 0x00
reg_def QUEUE_EXEC DMA_ETH 0x10 {
// Field resv = queue_exec[31:1]
reg_fld resv : uint(bits:31) : R : 0 : cov ;
// Field exec = queue_exec[0:0]
reg_fld exec : uint(bits:1) : RW : 0 : cov ;
};

extend XDMAC vr_ad_map {
dma_eth : DMA_ETH vr_ad_reg_file;

post_generate() is also {
add_with_offset(0x00, dma_eth);
dma_eth.reset();
};
}
'>

 

Any comments, please feed them back to me so I can enhance the script.
Note that this forum forces me to post a .zip file rather than .tgz, please be careful to unpack the file under Linux, not Windows, else the DOS linefeeds will corrupt the Perl and XML files.

Steve




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IntelliGen Statistics Metrics Collection Utilility

As noted in white papers, posts on the Team Specman Blog, and the Specman documentation, IntelliGen is a totally new stimulus generator than the original "Pgen" and, as a result, there is some amount of effort needed to migrate an existing verification environment to fully leverage the power of IntelliGen.  One of the main steps in migrating code is running the linters on your code and adressing the issues highlighted. 

Included below is a simple utility you can include in your environment that allows you to collect some valuable statistics about your code base to allow you to better gauge the amount of work that might be required to migrate from Pgen to IntelliGen.  The ICFS statistics reported are of particular benefit as the utility not only identifies the approximate number of ICFSs in the environment, it also breaks the total number down according to generation contexts (structs/units and gen-on-the-fly statements) allowing you to better focus your migration efforts. 

IMPORTANT: Sometimes a given environment can trigger a large number of IntelliGen linting messages right off the bat.  Don't let this freak you out!  This does not mean that migration will be a long effort as quite often some slight changes to an environment remove a large number of identified issues.  I recently encountered a situation where a simple change to three locations in the environment, removed 500+ ICFSs!

The methods included in the utility can be used to report information on the following:
- Number of e modules
- Number of lines in the environment (including blanks and comments)
- Number and type of IntelliGen Guidelines linting messages
- Number of Inconsistently Connected Field Sets (ICFSs)
- Number of ICFS contexts and how many ICFSs per context
- Number of soft..select overlays found in the envioronment
- Number of Laces identified in the environment


To use the code below, simply load it before/after loading e-code and then
you can execute any of the following methods:

- sys.print_file_stats()             : prints # of lines and files
- sys.print_constraint_stats()   : prints # of constraints in the environment
- sys.print_guideline_stats()    : prints # of each type of linting message
- sys.print_icfs_stats()            : prints # of ICFSs, contexts and #ICFS/context
- sys.print_soft_select_stats() : prints # of soft select overlay issues
- sys.print_lace_stats()           : *Only works for SPMNv6.2s4 and later* prints # of laces identified in the environment

Each of the above calls to methods produces it's own log files (stored in the current working directory) containing relevant information for more detailed analysis.
- file_stats_log.elog : Output of "show modules" command
- constraint_log.elog : Output of the "show constraint" command
- guidelines_log.elog : Output of "gen lint -g" (with notification set to MAX_INT in order to get all warnings)
- icfs_log.elog       : Output of "gen lint -i" command
- soft_select_log.elog: Output of the "gen lint -s" command
- lace_log.elog       : Output of the "show lace" command


Happy generating!

Corey Goss




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error in output waveform

 hi,

i am doing a project on synchronous fifo design using verilog. below written is my coding. after simulation the waveform is showing error regarding its not giving value of rdata_valid and is showing a red line in waveform and due to it address is also not being taken.i have attached the waveform also. the logic for write logic is also not accepting the address(no change occurs while changing value of read_ptr). i have attached my file with it so plz refer to it.

plz help me out in this. your guidance and solns will help me in completing my project work.

thank you

lov sareen




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help with automating adding CLP files to DRA files

Question for forum:

I’m currently working on a code to automatically add CLP files to DRA files and then add two classes called “APPROVED” and “CLP”. To do this manually you have to open a DRA file, click file import subdrawing and choose the clp file with the same name as dra. (path already set). You then set the clp to position x 0 0. And then click on Set Up > Subclasses > Package geometry and type in “Approved” and “Clp.”

So far we’ve recorded the macros in Allegro for all of these actions. The macros correspond to one specific file name and we want to apply this to numerous files. To do this we created a python program that locates all of the specified CLP and DRA files, and if they have a matching name, runs a for loop that puts each file name into a stored variable that runs a loop for each file. We converted this script into batch and then added a function that we thought would run Allegro macros from batch.

In order to get the script working, we need to have an allegro batch command that will run the script without opening the Allegro start popup, or closing the popup when it appears.  We need to do this to run any script from starting Allegro.

I’ve done another similar program in batch where I made a for loop for each dra file and within the loop there was a batch a2dxf command that converted all dra files to dxf files. Is there a similar batch command for adding clp files to position 0 0 and/ or adding classes? If anyone has done something similar please let me know!

Thank you very much for the help.

Jen




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Can't Find Quantus QRC toolbar on the Layout Suite

Hi, 

I want my layout verified by Quantus QRC. But, I can't find the tool bar on the option list ( as show in the picture)

I have tried to install EXT182 and configured it with iscape already, and also make some path settings on .bashrc, .cshrc. But, when I re-source .cshrc and run virtuoso again, I just can't find the toolbar. 

If you have some methods, please let me know.

Thanks a lot!

Appreciated

My virtuoso version is: ICADV12.3




ut

Layout can't open with the following warning message in CIW

Hi,

I tried to open my layout by Library Manager, but the Virtuoso CIW window sometimes pops up the follow WARNING messages( as picture depicts). Thus, layout can't open.

Sometimes, I try to reconfigure ICADV12.3 by the iscape and restart my VM and then it incredibly works! But, often not!

So, If anyone knows what it is going on. Please let me know! Thanks!

Appreciated so much   




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Are You Stuck While Synthesizing Your Design Due to Low-Power Issues? We Have the Solution!

Optimizing power can be a very convoluted and crucial process. To make design chips meet throughput goals along with optimal power consumption, you need to plan right from the beginning! (read more)




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Genus Synthesis Solution – Introduction to Stylus Common UI

The Cadence® Genus  Synthesis Solution, Innovus  Implementation System, and Tempus  Timing Signoff Solution have a lot of shared functionality, but in the past, the separate legacy user interfaces (UIs) created a lot of differences.

A new common user interface that the Genus solution shares with the Innovus and Tempus solutions streamlines flow development and simplifies usability across the complete Cadence digital flow. The Stylus Common UI provides a next-generation synthesis-to-signoff flow with unified database access, MMMC timing configuration and reporting, and low-power design initialization.

This webinar answers the following questions:

  • What is the Stylus Common UI and why did Cadence develop it?
  • How does someone invoke and use the Stylus Common UI?
  • What are some of the important and useful features of the Stylus Common UI?
  • What are key ways the Stylus Common UI is different from the Legacy UI?

If you want to learn more about Stylus UI in the context of Genus Synthesis Solution, refer to 45-minute recorded webinar on https://support.cadence.com (Cadence login required).

Video Title: Webinar: Genus Synthesis Solution—Introduction to the Stylus Common UI (Video)

Direct Link: https://support.cadence.com/apex/ArticleAttachmentPortal?id=a1O0V000009MoGIUA0&pageName=ArticleContent

Related Resources

If interested in the full course, including lab content, please contact your Cadence representative or email a request to training_enroll@cadence.com. You can also enroll in the course on http://learning.cadence.com.​

Enhance the Genus Synthesis experience with videos: Genus Synthesis Solution: Video Library

For any questions, general feedback, or future blog topic suggestions, please leave a comment. 




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Five Reasons I'm Excited About Mixed-Signal Verification in 2015

Key Findings: Many more design teams will be reaching the mixed-signal methodology tipping point in 2015. That means you need to have a (verification) plan, and measure and execute against it.

As 2014 draws to a close, it is time to look ahead to the coming years and make a plan. While the macro view of the chip design world shows that is has been a mixed-signal world for a long time, it is has been primarily the digital teams that have rapidly evolved design and verification practices over the past decade. Well, I claim that is about to change. 2015 will be a watershed year for many more design teams because of the following factors:

  • 85% of designs are mixed signal, and it is going to stay that way (there is no turning back)
  • Advanced node drives new techniques, but they will be applied on all nodes
  • Equilibrium of mixed-signal designs being challenged, complexity raises risk level
  • Tipping point signs are evident and pervasive, things are going to change
  • The convergence of “big A” and “big D” demands true mixed-signal practices

Reason 1: Mixed-signal is dominant

To begin the examination of what is going to change and why, let’s start with what is not changing. IBS reports that mixed signal accounts for over 85% of chip design starts in 2014, and that percentage will rise, and hold steady at 85% in the coming years. It is a mixed-signal world and there is no turning back!

 

Figure 1. IBS: Mixed-signal design starts as percent of total

The foundational nature of mixed-signal designs in the semiconductor industry is well established. The reason it is exciting is that a stable foundation provides a platform for driving change. (It’s hard to drive on crumbling infrastructure.  If you’re from California, you know what I mean, between the potholes on the highways and the earthquakes and everything.)

Reason 2: Innovation in many directions, mostly mixed-signal applications

While the challenges being felt at the advanced nodes, such as double patterning and adoption of FinFET devices, have slowed some from following onto to nodes past 28nm, innovation has just turned in different directions. Applications for Internet of Things, automotive, and medical all have strong mixed-signal elements in their semiconductor content value proposition. What is critical to recognize is that many of the design techniques that were initially driven by advanced-node programs have merit across the spectrum of active semiconductor process technologies. For example, digitally controlled, calibrated, and compensated analog IP, along with power-reducing mutli-supply domains, power shut-off, and state retention are being applied in many programs on “legacy” nodes.

Another graph from IBS shows that the design starts at 45nm and below will continue to grow at a healthy pace.  The data also shows that nodes from 65nm and larger will continue to comprise a strong majority of the overall starts. 


Figure 2.  IBS: Design starts per process node

TSMC made a comprehensive announcement in September related to “wearables” and the Internet of Things. From their press release:

TSMC’s ultra-low power process lineup expands from the existing 0.18-micron extremely low leakage (0.18eLL) and 90-nanometer ultra low leakage (90uLL) nodes, and 16-nanometer FinFET technology, to new offerings of 55-nanometer ultra-low power (55ULP), 40ULP and 28ULP, which support processing speeds of up to 1.2GHz. The wide spectrum of ultra-low power processes from 0.18-micron to 16-nanometer FinFET is ideally suited for a variety of smart and power-efficient applications in the IoT and wearable device markets. Radio frequency and embedded Flash memory capabilities are also available in 0.18um to 40nm ultra-low power technologies, enabling system level integration for smaller form factors as well as facilitating wireless connections among IoT products.

Compared with their previous low-power generations, TSMC’s ultra-low power processes can further reduce operating voltages by 20% to 30% to lower both active power and standby power consumption and enable significant increases in battery life—by 2X to 10X—when much smaller batteries are demanded in IoT/wearable applications.

The focus on power is quite evident and this means that all of the power management and reduction techniques used in advanced node designs will be coming to legacy nodes soon.

Integration and miniaturization are being pursued from the system-level in, as well as from the process side. Techniques for power reduction and system energy efficiency are central to innovations under way.  For mixed-signal program teams, this means there is an added dimension of complexity in the verification task. If this dimension is not methodologically addressed, the level of risk adds a new dimension as well.

Reason 3: Trends are pushing the limits of established design practices

Risk is the bane of every engineer, but without risk there is no progress. And, sometimes the amount of risk is not something that can be controlled. Figure 3 shows some of the forces at work that cause design teams to undertake more risk than they would ideally like. With price and form factor as primary value elements in many growing markets, integration of analog front-end (AFE) with digital processing is becoming commonplace.  

 

Figure 3.  Trends pushing mixed-signal out of equilibrium

The move to the sweet spot of manufacturing at 28nm enables more integration, while providing excellent power and performance parameters with the best cost per transistor. Variation becomes great and harder to control. For analog design, this means more digital assistance for calibration and compensation. For greatest flexibility and resiliency, many will opt for embedding a microcontroller to perform the analog control functions in software. Finally, the first wave of leaders have already crossed the methodology bridge into true mixed-signal design and verification; those who do not follow are destined to fall farther behind.

Reason 4: The tipping point accelerants are catching fire

The factors cited in Reason 3 all have a technical grounding that serves to create pain in the chip-development process. The more factors that are present, the harder it is to ignore the pain and get the treatment relief  afforded by adopting known best practices for truly mixed-signal design (versus divide and conquer along analog and digital lines design).

In the past design performance was measured in MHz with simple static timing and power analysis. Design flows were conveniently partitioned, literally and figuratively, along analog and digital boundaries. Today, however, there are gigahertz digital signals that interact at the package and board level in analog-like ways. New, dynamic power analysis methods enabled by advanced library characterization must be melded into new design flows. These flows comprehend the growing amount of feedback between analog and digital functions that are becoming so interlocked as to be inseparable. This interlock necessitates design flows that include metrics-driven and software-driven testbenches, cross fabric analysis, electrically aware design, and database interoperability across analog and digital design environments.


Figure 4.  Tipping point indicators

Energy efficiency is a universal driver at this point.  Be it cost of ownership in the data center or battery life in a cell phone or wearable device, using less power creates more value in end products. However, layering multiple energy management and optimization techniques on top of complex mixed-signal designs adds yet more complexity demanding adoption of “modern” mixed-signal design practices.

Reason 5: Convergence of analog and digital design

Divide and conquer is always a powerful tool for complexity management.  However, as the number of interactions across the divide increase, the sub-optimality of those frontiers becomes more evident. Convergence is the name of the game.  Just as analog and digital elements of chips are converging, so will the industry practices associated with dealing with the converged world.


Figure 5. Convergence drivers

Truly mixed-signal design is a discipline that unites the analog and digital domains. That means that there is a common/shared data set (versus forcing a single cockpit or user model on everyone). 

In verification the modern saying is “start with the end in mind”. That means creating a formal approach to the plan of what will be test, how it will be tested, and metrics for success of the tests. Organizing the mechanics of testbench development using the Unified Verification Methodology (UVM) has proven benefits. The mixed-signal elements of SoC verification are not exempted from those benefits.

Competition is growing more fierce in the world for semiconductor design teams. Not being equipped with the best-known practices creates a competitive deficit that is hard to overcome with just hard work. As the landscape of IC content drives to a more energy-efficient mixed-signal nature, the mounting risk posed by old methodologies may cause causalities in the coming year. Better to move forward with haste and create a position of strength from which differentiation and excellence in execution can be forged.

Summary

2015 is going to be a banner year for mixed-signal design and verification methodologies. Those that have forged ahead are in a position of execution advantage. Those that have not will be scrambling to catch up, but with the benefits of following a path that has been proven by many market leaders.



  • uvm
  • mixed signal design
  • Metric-Driven-Verification
  • Mixed Signal Verification
  • MDV-UVM-MS

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Automatically Reusing an SoC Testbench in AMS IP Verification

The complexity and size of mixed-signal designs in wireless, power management, automotive, and other fast growing applications requires continued advancements in a mixed-signal verification methodology. An SoC, in these fast growing applications, incorporates a large number of analog and mixed-signal (AMS) blocks/IPs, some acquired from IP providers, some designed, often concurrently. AMS IP must be verified independently, but this is not sufficient to ensure an SoC will function properly and all scenarios of interaction among many different AMS IP blocks at full chip / SoC level must be verified thoroughly. To reduce an overall verification cycle, AMS IP and SoC verification teams must work in parallel from early stages of the design. Easier said than done! We will outline a methodology than can help.

AMS designers verify their IP meets required specifications by running a testbench they develop for standalone / out of-context verification. Typically, an AMS IP as analog-centric, hierarchal design in schematic, composed of blocks represented by transistor, HDL and behavioral description verified in Virtuoso® Analog Design Environment (ADE) using Spectre AMS Designer simulation. An SoC verification team typically uses UVM SystemVerilog testbech at full chip level where the AMS IP is represented with a simple digital or real number model running Xcelium /DMS simulation from the command line.

Ideally, AMS designers should also verify AMS IP function properly in the context of full-chip integration, but reproducing an often complex UVM SystemVerilog testbench and bringing over top-level design description to an analog-centric environment is not a simple task.

Last year, Cadence partnered with Infineon on a project with a goal to automate the reuse of a top-level testbench in AMS verification. The automation enabled AMS verification engineers to automatically configure setup for verification runs by assembling all necessary options and files from the AMS IP Virtuoso GUI and digital SoC top-level command line configurations. The benefits of this method were:

  • AMS verification engineers did not need to re-create complex stimuli representing interaction of their IP at the top level
  • Top-level verification stays external to the AMS IP verification environment and continues to be managed by the SoC verification team, but can be reused by the AMS IP team without manual overhead
  • AMS IP is verified in-context and any inconsistencies are detected earlier in the verification process
  • Improved productivity and overall verification time

For more details, please see Infineon’s CDNLlive presentation.




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Virtuosity: Device Arrays in the Automated Device Placement and Routing Flow

Since the release of the Automated Device Placement and Routing solution last year, we have continued to improve and build upon it. In this blog, I’ll talk about the latest addition—the Auto Device Array form—how this is an integral piece of the new Automated Device Placement and Routing solution.(read more)




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Virtuosity: Are Your Layout Design Mansions Correct-by-Construction?

Do you want to create designs that are correct by construction? Read along this blog to understand how you can achieve this by using Width Spacing Patterns (WSPs) in your designs. WSPs, are track lines that provide guidance for quickly creating wires. Defining WSPs that capture the width-dependent spacing rules, and snapping the pathSegs of a wire to them, ensures that the wires meet width-dependent spacing rules.(read more)




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Virtuoso Meets Maxwell: What About My Die That Has No Bumps, Only Pad Shapes? How Do I Export That?

If you have one of those Die layouts, which doesn’t have bumps, but rather uses pad shapes and labels to identify I/O locations, then you might be feeling a bit left out of all of this jazz and tango. Hence, today, I am writing to tell you that, fear not, we have a solution for your Die as well.(read more)




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Virtuoso Meets Maxwell: Keeping Things Simple in the Virtuoso RF Solution

We have all heard the sayings “Less is more” and “Keep it simple”. Electromagnetic simulation is an activity where following that advice has enormous payoffs. In this blog I’ll talk about some of my experiences with how Virtuoso RF Solution’s shape simplification feature has helped my customers get significant performance improvements with minimal impacts on accuracy. (read more)




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News18 Urdu: Latest News South 24 Parganas

visit News18 Urdu for latest news, breaking news, news headlines and updates from South 24 Parganas on politics, sports, entertainment, cricket, crime and more.




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News18 Urdu: Latest News South Goa

visit News18 Urdu for latest news, breaking news, news headlines and updates from South Goa on politics, sports, entertainment, cricket, crime and more.




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News18 Urdu: Latest News Koraput

visit News18 Urdu for latest news, breaking news, news headlines and updates from Koraput on politics, sports, entertainment, cricket, crime and more.




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Mutual Funds પર દબાણ વધ્યું, RBIએ 50 હજાર કરોડ રૂપિયા આપવાની કરી જાહેરાત

યૂએસ બેઝ્ડ મ્યુચ્યુઅલ ફંડ હાઉસ ફ્રેન્કલિન ટેમ્પલટને ભારતમાં 6 Debt Fundsને બંધ કરી દેતાં રોકાણકારોના કરોડો રૂપિયા ફસાયા




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News18 Urdu: Latest News South West

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News18 Urdu: Latest News South District

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News18 Urdu: Latest News Uttarkashi

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News18 Urdu: Latest News South

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News18 Urdu: Latest News Kutch

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News18 Urdu: Latest News South Garo Hills

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News18 Urdu: Latest News Uttar Dinajpur

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News18 Urdu: Latest News Cuttak

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News18 Urdu: Latest News Meerut

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News18 Urdu: Latest News Gautam Bodda Nagar

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Apple's Bug Bounty Opens For Business, $1M Payout Included







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Controlling The Kernel - Its All About DRM






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Adobe Flash Player Type Confusion Remote Code Execution

This Metasploit module exploits a type confusion vulnerability found in the ActiveX component of Adobe Flash Player. This vulnerability was found exploited in the wild in November 2013. This Metasploit module has been tested successfully on IE 6 to IE 10 with Flash 11.7, 11.8 and 11.9 prior to 11.9.900.170 over Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 SP1.




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Adobe Flash Player Integer Underflow Remote Code Execution

This Metasploit module exploits a vulnerability found in the ActiveX component of Adobe Flash Player before 12.0.0.43. By supplying a specially crafted swf file it is possible to trigger an integer underflow in several avm2 instructions, which can be turned into remote code execution under the context of the user, as exploited in the wild in February 2014. This Metasploit module has been tested successfully with Adobe Flash Player 11.7.700.202 on Windows XP SP3, Windows 7 SP1 and Adobe Flash Player 11.3.372.94 on Windows 8 even when it includes rop chains for several Flash 11 versions, as exploited in the wild.




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Advantech WebAccess 8.0 / 3.4.3 Code Execution

Using Advantech WebAccess SCADA Software and attacker can remotely manage industrial control systems devices like RTU's, generators, motors, etc. Attackers can execute code remotely by passing a maliciously crafted string to ConvToSafeArray API in ASPVCOBJLib.AspDataDriven ActiveX.




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UCanCode Remote Code Execution / Denial Of Service

UCanCode has active-x vulnerabilities which allow for remote code execution and denial of service attacks.