( ESNUG 475 Item 6 ) -------------------------------------------- [09/18/08]
Subject: Magma Titan/Sabio, Synopsys Orion, SynCira, Ciranova, Infiniscale
MAGMA READY, SYNOPSYS GREEN: At the Synopsys Orion demo, I went off script
once I saw it supposedly outputing perfectly laid out Pcells. I told the
demo AE to pull up a transistor and a resistor in Orion. He did it. I
told the AE to wire them together. He did it. I told the AE to output
the resulting layout. I wanted to see the instantiated Pcells of my simple
circuit. The Synopsys AE couldn't get Orion to output anything. He said
that "this build can't output cells". I told him: "I'm not in a rush.
Feel free to find a build of Orion on your Synopsys DAC network that does
work then." The funny thing was that the Synopsys AE didn't panic nor run
around; he simply said he can't.
I immediately walked over to the Magma booth and asked for a copy of their
new Titan and an AE to drive it. They got all weird and panicky, but
after I pushed a bit, I got both. I asked the Magma AE to draw a transistor
and a resistor and wire it together in Titan. He did it. I asked the AE
to output the laid out Pcells of my simple design. He did it. LOL!
Long story short -- Synopsys Orion is green, while Magma Titan is ready.
"What were the 1 or 2 or 3 INTERESTING specific tools that you
saw at DAC this year? WHY where they interesting to you?
(If any were under NDA say it and I'll keep you anon on them.)"
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Magma Titan: Seamless integration with Talus, allowing in-place
concurrent edits of custom and place and route blocks. Good analog
router, import SKILL based Pcells from Virtuoso.
Another key technology is analog migration to new foundries/process
technology (Sabio Labs), auto-model extract, sizing to physical
constraints, OA compatibility.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Magma's Titan tool is definitely an interesting one due to its fully
integrated environment for mixed-signal designs. Their lack of database
transfers between tools can significantly simplify verification reducing
iterations and time.
- Jorge Varona of Snowbush IP
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
I am supporting the analog/mixed signal design environment. So, I am
interested in the following tools.
1. FineSim
2. Titan
3. Sabio
In DAC, I wanted to see the demo of Cadence ADE I/F of FineSim. But I
couldn't do that. No Cadence at DAC.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
MAGMA TITAN
We saw a DAC demo and have done an initial evaluation of Magma's Titan
custom layout shape-based router.
Some noteworthy items from the Titan DAC demo:
1. Tight integration with Talus (Magma'a SoC design tool for non-custom
digital implements) allowing in-place concurrent edits of custom and
traditional place and routed blocks.
2. Good analog router, allowing you to import Skill-based pcells from
Virtuoso.
3. Analog migration to new foundries/process technology (from their Sabio
Labs acquisition), auto-model extract, sizing to physical constraints,
OA compatibility.
Some items from our initial evaluation of Titan for one design:
- We started w/ a Cadence database and an export/conversion to OpenAccess
(using Cadence's cdb2oa utility).
- We saw a good migration of existing data from original database into
Titan. The lib and data preparation for routing were straightforward.
- We checked routability: First we routed with basic constraints, then
we applied blockages at the top level to avoid routing over blocks.
Then we applied detailed routing constraints like shielding, double-cut
vias, resistance matching, then routed the design.
- We needed to do some DRC/LVS cleanup - some items/issues were due to
the uniqueness of data available to work with on the test case.
For a small/medium design of about 4.5 mm on a side, routing took about
15 minutes with about one hour from beginning to end including detailed
routing steps. The first time you do this, plan for some added time to
get going (which is usual anytime you do something new and for the first
time). The tool in general is very well thought out and we are continuing
to look at it.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
The Sabio stuff that Magma absorbed into Titan was hot. This technology
addresses a problem I've always had with optimizers.
Classic optimizers design the same way a poor designer designs: simulate,
tweak, simulate, tweak, simulate, tweak. The stuff Magma got from Sabio
is different in that it lets you put in some higher-level sensible
analytical constraints. This way, a designer can still put as much
actual "design" into a block as they choose, while still letting the
computer size devices.
Unfortunately, Magma is missing the simulate, tweak, simulate, tweak part
entirely, and there is also a time and place for that kind of approach to
design. If they had both (which they claim is roadmapped for the end of
2008) it would be very compelling indeed. It would be pretty close to
analog synthesis.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
2.5) Magma is entering this space and deserves honorable mention with
the Titan Electrical Analog Migration tool. Where the previous two
are focused on DFM/DFY, Magma is poised to enable rapid migration of
tedious analog designs to new process nodes. (Sabio) Historically
averaging 12 weeks per design, Magma claims to be able to migrate a
fully parameterized circuit in 1 day.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
For a mixed signal designer, easily the most interesting is the Synopsys
Orion project. This looks like it has the potential to grow into
providing everything Virtuoso does and more and is infinitely more
usable.
- Andrew Cole of Foveon Inc.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
1. Synopsys had a great full custom design demo (Orion)
2. Ciranova had a great little booth & demo
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Ciranova Helix tools for semi-automatic analog mixed signal layout
floorplan (routing is in R&D). It will save time for planning layout
with easy constraint setup.
SynCira: analog P&R. There are constraint setup, such as shield,
symmetry, etc.. for all the routings. One thing though it's not
open source tools.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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SynCira - as far a automated analog physical design - these guys are
early in their product cycle, but they have a very good core. The object
they chose make sense, they are usable analog blocks, they do not solely
rely on the phantom world of "transferable Pcells" or as most analog guys
know them "DRC unclean, and non-processable by DFM or mask processing,
cells". Their GUI is simple so you can focus on the design NOT the GUI.
If these guys stay on track, in about 1 year they should have a pretty
good product. I hope they do not get derailed by their VCs or marketing.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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We did a hands-on evaluation of Infiniscale Lysis mixed-signal circuit
design optimizater. Lysis' core, the modeler, is a response-surface
model generator. I regard it as a multi-dimensional curve-fitter. We
evaluated Lysis based on a previous mixed-signal circuit design and were
able to reproduce some of the Monte-Carlo attributes of that circuit.
One big advantage of Lysis is that it is circuit-simulator agnostic, so
it can interface with Eldo and Spectre but also has text-interface where
you can enter the simulation results. Because of its simple but mature
GUI, I was able to auto-pilot it after using it for only a day or two.
Lysis saved us a lot of overhead (e.g. writing equations) and the opto
is not search-based so it is lightning-fast.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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INFINISCALE ANALOG OPTIMIZATION
I saw a DAC demo of Infiniscale's Lysis model-based analog/mixed signal
optimization product, plus got more information on it after DAC. We are
about to look into this tool further for specific applications like
DACs/ADCs/MEMS.
Lysis has various component modules that mainly:
- Build behavioral models of your design from simulation.
- Perform fast Monte Carlo model-based statistical analysis.
- Generate nominal/optimal sizing. You can provide input ranges,
input/output constraints and spec targets and generate multi-corner
optimized sizing across the design space.
- Provide yield optimization and increased robustness.
Once we create the model using Lysis modeler, I liked that you could
generate real-time what-if scenarios by varying input or parameters. You
could assess sensitivity to particular changes of input parameters in a
nice GUI. E.g. it had sliders allowing visual feedback with variation
awareness and showed the impact of changes of each parameter.
What is unique about Lysis is going from simulation runs that normally
take hours for each input parameter to allow the generation of optimized
design sizing that take minutes to derive because they use a model-based
approach. This should provide a significant productivity boost.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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(i) OpenAccess IPL Demo: The Interoperable PDK Library Alliance did an
interoperability demonstration in which software tools from several
different (competing) vendors were used to build, view, modify and verify
a cell on an OpenAccess database with absolutely no translation required
to go from one tool to another:
- Compose a schematic in Silicon Navigator RDE.
- Use Ciranova Pycells to implement transistor layout.
- View schematic/layout in a Synosys OpenAccess Viewer
- Create/edit/wire layout in SpringSoft Laker layout editor
- Run Calibre DRC, view errors in RVE, fix in Laker
- Rerun Hercules DRC, view errors in Vue, fix in Laker
- Place higher level block using Ciranova Helix
It bodes well for a competitive yet cooperative EDA environment in which
best in class tools for specific tasks from any vendor can easily plug
into design flows. Customers will be free to mix and match tools without
being constrained by proprietary database formats.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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