( ESNUG 340 Item 1 ) --------------------------------------------- [1/19/00]
Subject: ( ESNUG 339 #2 ) Mismatched Timing Engines Stall Cadence PKS
> A final note: in it's current state PKS uses Ambit at the front end with
> the Ambit Static Timing Analyzer, and Qplace at the back end with Pearl
> as the Static Timing Analyzer, something we thought was a mishmash and
> certain to cause timing correlation problems.
>
> - Jon Stahl, Principal Engineer
> Avici Systems N. Billerica, MA
From: Jay Vleeschhouwer <Jay_Vleeschhouwer@ml.com>
To: Jon Stahl <jstahl@avici.com>
Hi, Jon
I read your recent postings on ESNUG concerning Chip Architect. At your
convenience, perhaps you wouldn't mind answering some follow-up questions:
1. You refer to the current state of Cadence PKS as a "mishmash". Is
that a fundamental design flaw or would you still be interested in
evaluating it if Cadence's sales and support were more responsive?
2. What do you think the ratio of Chip Architect licenses will be to
Avanti licenses?
3. Do you plan to evaluate Physical Compiler (PhysOpt)?
Thanks.
- Jay Vleeschhouwer, Analyst
Merrill Lynch New York, NY
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: Jon Stahl <jstahl@avici.com>
To: Jay Vleeschhouwer <Jay_Vleeschhouwer@ml.com>
Hi Jay,
My answers to your questions 1, 2, 3:
1. My "mishmash" comment refered to the fact that Cadence PKS currently
uses a combination of two timing engines -- always a bad situation.
They claimed to be fixing this and going to a common timing engine,
but didn't give us a timeframe.
2. That's a very involved question. Which Avanti licenses? A flow in my
mind would be getting placed timing closure with Chip Architect, and
then using Avanti tools for clock insertion (is this coming in Chip
Architect?), routing, parasitic extraction, and nvl/drc. These are
all separate licenses! A quick answer is that you iterate on
placement (i.e. Chip Architect) more often than the other things
mentioned on your way to tape out, so you would almost definitely have
more Chip Architect licenses than anything else.
3. Yes.
Hope that helps. (BTW, Jay, I own Cadence stock - could you please upgrade
your evaluation of them, OK? :^)
- Jon Stahl, Principal Engineer
Avici Systems N. Billerica, MA
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