( ESNUG 475 Item 8 ) -------------------------------------------- [09/18/08]
Subject: Apache Redhawk/Sentinel/Totem-MMX
TOO BAD NO CADENCE: Apache ruled the IR-drop and noise analysis roost at
this year's DAC, because it's biggest rival, Cadence Simplex, decided to
pull a no-show at DAC this year. I guess CDNS had to save money to pay
Mike Fister's $13.5 million annual compensation package. Happy Apache!
"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.)"
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
(iii) Apache Design Automation showed a promising toolset, (Totem-MMX
and Sentinel), focussed exclusively on power network noise & reliability
analysis that accounted for both on-die as well as off-chip package
power bussing. Rumored to be better than other tools on the market in
terms of capacity, accuracy and practicality.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
One of my area of interest is the power integrity verification at
transistor and system level. Apache provides Redhawk-MMX (xistor
level) and Redhawk-EV (system level) in these areas.
At Apache booth, presentations were done by Apache customers. At
the end of the presentations, I had the opportunity to have informal
discussions with attendees from other companies about the tool and
its day to day usage. It was very interesting.
- Remy Chevallier of STmicroelectronics
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Apache's Redhawk seems to have shaped a nice spot for itself. We used
it for analyzing the power grid on a pretty large SoC design.
I saw presentations on the latest improvements at DAC this year. Their
built-in RC extraction for the power grid is fast and pretty accurate;
the IR drop analysis is also very fast for static or dynamic IR drop
analysis. I think is the user interface gives good graphical feedback
to help diagnose and fix power delivery problems.
Analyzing the power delivery interaction between package and chip also
seems to be one of Apache's strengths.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Apache SENTINEL
We use Apache RedHawk for static and dynamic IR drop analyses. Some of
the things that we really liked:
- Fast APL generation - which supports grid computing as well
- Fast run times
- Good "what-if" for decap insertion
- Dynamic analysis can actually take into account package RLC;
which could lead to significant DvD
However there are certain concerns which we are taking up with the Apache
support:
- VCD-based DvD analysis for a design running at low frequency is very
time consuming as the VCD will be huge to capture even few cycles
- GUI is not very intuitive and rather slow
Overall our experiences to date have been really good with their tools
and we have been getting very good customer support. Their bug fixes and
work-arounds are provided quickly.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Interesting 2: Apache Sentinel, for its effort to model the package
design problem
- Yongcheng Miao of Fujitsu
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Another interesting tool I saw this year was the Apache RedHawk-MMX.
It is a power integrity analysis tool for full custom analog macrocells
like embedded memories and analog IPs. You can run power and ground
grid check, static IR-drop, dynamic voltage drop and electro-migration
analyses with transistor-level accuracy.
- Pierluigi Daglio of STmicroelectronics
Index
Next->Item
|
|
