( ESNUG 592 Item 07 ) --------------------------------------------- [02/10/23]
Subject: Sam on Ausdia timing constraint sign-off with PrimeTime & Tempus STA
The live DAC'22 Troublemakers Panel
Cooley: Sam. Most of the chip designers I know already have either
PrimeTime or Tempus in-house. Why would they even bother
using Ausdia's Timevision?
Sam: Well, John, if you look at the data, about half of all tape-outs,
even today, are still going to need at least one respin to reach
production worthiness.
And roughly a third of those respins are going to be due to
timing or clocking issues.
|
"Half of all tape-outs need at least one respin to reach production worthiness."
- Sam Appleton of Ausdia
|
Now Primetime and Tempus, they're great tools.
Cooley: They are well-developed, they've been around a long time.
Sam: Yes, they're very robust. But they can only statically verify what
you actually give them -- and in this case, it's the timing
constraints that describe the timing functionality of your design.
So, the PrimeTime and Tempus STA tools are going to run your timing
constraints, and eventually, they're going to give you a clean
bill of health. But if those timing constraints had errors, your
silicon may still not work.
So Ausdia Timevision, which is our product, catches errors and
omissions in your SDC. Our customers use it to sign off their
timing constraints and avoid these errors.
It's a key part of our customer's overall timing sign-off.
Cooley: So, I use this magic tool you have, and suddenly all my respins
go away one of those all those one-third respins go away, because
"Thank God that Ausdia was here!"
Sam: Well, you put it very nicely. (laughter)
No, it's not going to go to zero. However, companies are going
to see a lot fewer respins in the silicon due to timing and clock
errors than if they didn't use Ausdia.
Well obviously, I also want to point out, that when we say "timing
clocking issues" that there is still this stuff like CDC and RDC
(that Prakash told us that Real Intent is checking for.)
Ausdia is checking for timing in clocking errors related to timing
constraints -- but there's also CDC and RDC that must go with it.
Cooley: Well, those are different beasts.
Sam: They are different beasts, okay? But still flavors of static
sign-off.
Cooley: Have you ever told a customer to not use PrimeTime, or to not use
Tempus?
Sam: No, I have never done that. Never would.
Cooley: Why?
Sam: It's not my place. It's a customer decision.
Cooley: Okay.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Related Articles
Sam on Ausdia Timevision vs. Spyglass, Fishtail, Excellicon for SDC
BRCM engineer evals Ausdia Timevision for STA constraints cleanup
User benchmarks Fishtail, Ausdia, Atrenta, Excellicon, Blue Pearl
Join
Index
Next->Item
|
|
