Flexibility is a key talent
I have just returned from England, where I helped my parents celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary – an event where even...
EDA Stock Price Snapshot
A picture is worth a thousand words, at least to an engineer like me so let's see what happened in the past 3 months: EDA...
TBD: The Perfect Architecture Migration Guide
I have a presentation to give in about two weeks regarding best known methods on architecture migrations. As usual, my...
Thinking Big
Management Secrets of Captain Bligh: Part the Second Why does the infamous Captain Bligh stand out from any bright, new...
EdXact is an innovative EDA company dedicated to IC parasitic analysis and reduction. It has been created with the mission to help IC designers optimise post-layout simulation, maintain verification accuracy and meet time-to-market goals. With IC designs targeting nanometer processes, backend verification becomes a major bottleneck in the design cycle, which prevents designers to meet their time-to-market and time-to-volume targets. The overall goal of EdXact's technology is to help reducing the number of re-spins that are necessary today to produce complex ICs.
Efficient parasitic modelling is the key
EdXact's team has a strong background in physical verification, signal integrity analysis, substrate and interconnect analysis, delay and crosstalk modeling, as well as in parasitic extraction techniques. The company is headquartered in Grenoble, France, which reinforces its collaboration with R&D groups from Universities and Laboratories.
Today, EdXact is the leading provider of standalone Model-Order- Reduction technologies. It's mathematically proven algorithms are among the first in the market to be able to handle mutual inductors and cross-coupling capacitors without compromising the accuracy of the underlying model. The company's patent-pending techniques dramatically accelerate backannoted simulations in very large designs, while achieving sign-off accuracy.
Seamless integration into your design flow
EdXact is a niche player, aiming at boosting existing tools and flows by an order of magnitude and adding innovation for very special topics.
EdXact's tools are developed to integrate within your existing flows. Close cooperation allows the combined tools to be completely interoperable and user-friendly. The seamless integration with your EDA software provides an optimized and validated flow that is faster, much more efficient and still accurate in order to meet sign-off requirements. Boosting your existing tools EdXact sells to IC and SOC designers inside fabs, IP providers and design houses. EdXact's products have already been selected by companies based in Europe, in the USA and in Japan. They have been successfully used for circuits with integrated spiral inductors, analog-digital converters, VCOs, LDOs, power amplifiers, as well as with very dense memory ICs, imaging ICs, microprocessors and many others. Customers are impressed by the speed improvements that are achieved, and very pleased to be able to use their simulation tools for new designs that otherwise would have been much too large.
SOLUTIONS
Jivaro
Jivaro is a parasitic elements reduction platform that enables the speed up of physical design analysis tools by applying reduction techniques while keeping results accuracy. It is composed of a large set of classic or innovative patent pending model order reduction algorithms, and of a proprietary numerical data base allowing multi-threaded and distributed computations.

Based on this platform, EDXACT has developed 2 different reduction tools JivaroD and JivaroA , as well as an interconnections analysis tool Comanche. As major benefits, the reduction tools allow a number of simulation runs in the same time budget, with a preserved accuracy, thus improving the chances for a successful tape-out on time. The simulation time for larger designs turns from infinite into hours, see minutes, and disk and memory requirements for simulation tools decrease substantially.
Users can also apply different degrees of reduction on different parts of the design, from absolute accuracy preservation down to very aggressive reduction rate. They naturally integrate in between the parasitic extractors and the physical verification tools
JivaroD is a high volume parasitic networks reduction tool that performs the reduction of R, RC, RC lumped and RC coupled networks. It can handle parasitic files of many gigabytes. It supports the DSPF and SPEF formats.
JivaroA is an analog/mixed-signal extracted circuits reduction tool that performs the reduction of R, RC, RCC, RLC and RLCK circuits and can handle files of a few gigabytes. It supports the SPECTRE and HSPICE post extraction formats. It is integrated in the Cadence Virtuoso and analog Artist platforms.
Comanche
Comanche is an accurate interconnections analysis tool that can be used within the physical verification flow as a sanity check to detect "gross" violations before going into time consuming physical analyses.
Comanche features extremely fast resistance, S,Y,Z, parameters and Elmore delay calculation capabilities and can detect a bunch of problems such as opens and shortcuts, risk of IR drop, insufficient via insertion, unbalanced interconnections carrying differential signals, I/O inadequacies for RF circuits, and many others.
InCyte Features
Chip Estimate's InCyte adds accuracy and what-if analysis to the complex process of early chip planning. InCyte is used for refining your chip specification, including exploring and quantifying IP and process technologies, performing what-if analysis to refine design specifications, and to achieve the optimal balance of functionality, performance and cost. Die size, power, leakage, yield and production chip cost are estimated, and package recommendations are offered. InCyte estimates are based on actual foundry, ASIC vendor and IP vendor technology data models, and accuracy is within 98% of silicon. InCyte provides accurate estimation of the following key metrics.
InCyte's analysis of final production chip cost builds on the system's technical estimation results, factoring in economic data gathered from across the semiconductor design chain, to provide users with an accurate estimation of packaged chip cost. Including an extensive database of package options, InCyte recommends a package based upon technical estimation results, and then provides volume based package pricing. Industry silicon wafer pricing data and defect densities enable systematic yield analysis providing 'good die' cost. InCyte's analysis of design components provides an estimation of test & assembly costs while industry non-recurring engineering costing data provides process specific mask cost estimations. The result is a complete budgetary quote reporting all of the factors which comprise production chip cost.
Industry wafer pricing, defect data, and packaging data are automatically updated quarterly by the InCyte software, ensuring that estimations are always based on the latest available economic data. InCyte's economic models which drive the calculation engine are also user customizable. Users may override many aspects of the economic analysis to tailor estimations to their needs.
InCyte users have the option of performing a lifecycle analysis to forecast chip cost over time, taking into account decreasing wafer costs, improving defect densities and other parameters. Return on investment (ROI) analysis enables users to understand over what timeframe and volume non-recurring engineering costs may be amortized and profitability on a design may be achieved.

Using InCyte
Integrating InCyte into a chip planning process is easy, and the input required is minimal. Specifications of gate count, memory size, number of I/Os and IP blocks are used to generate an estimate that can be used to assess the technical and economic feasibility of a design. InCyte includes a comprehensive IP catalog from which users can select technology nodes, process variants and IP macros under consideration. Users can also import IP lists they generate while searching and selecting IP in the ChipEstimate.com IP catalog. InCyte utilizes technology models, provided by Chip Estimate, generated from the same design kit data used by chip implementation tools. This results in accurate, foundry, ASIC vendor, and IP library vendor specific estimations which correlate to within 98% of silicon. Users can perform rapid what-if analysis to compare their design across technology nodes, processes, IP options, and varying chip specifications.
Supported Foundries and IP Library Vendors
InCyte enables accurate chip estimations specific to processes and IP libraries from leading third party foundries and IP vendors. Please visit ChipEstimate.com for an extensive list of supported foundries and IP vendors. Additional foundries and IP library vendors may be added as well.
Output
Estimation results are output in various user selected formats including charts, reports, and tables describing die area usage, chip bounding, dynamic and static power consumptions, yield, and production chip cost. A preliminary chip floorplan is also generated. Budgetary quotations providing a comprehensive breakdown of production chip cost are also provided. Users may export all technical and economic estimation results in Microsoft Excel format. Design specification data may be exported in industry standard Verilog and LEF/DEF formats to link InCyte results directly to the chip implementation flow. InCyte outputs are compatible with EDA implementation tools from all major vendors. To get started with InCyte, click here to learn more about pricing and availability.
PLL and DLL Hard Macros
True Circuits' complete family of standardized, silicon-proven, lowjitter PLL and DLL hard macros spans nearly all performance points and features typically requested by ASIC, FPGA and SoC designers. Using robust state-of-the-art circuits, a methodical and proven design strategy, and close associations with the world's leading fabs and IDMs, True Circuits is able to quickly and reliably create new and innovative designs in a variety of advanced process technologies. True Circuits' clock generator, spread spectrum, low bandwidth, high resolution and deskew PLLs support wide operating frequency ranges and multiplication factors over which they deliver optimal performance, eliminating the need for PLL generators that attempt to optimize performance at a single operating point. The clock generator PLL is available with multi-phase outputs and 4 bits of precise factional-N control. The high resolution PLL provides frequency modulation and very high frequency resolution with over 16 bits of control and very low long-term jitter. All PLLs are available in small sizes for easier integration.
True Circuits' DLLs delay a set of signals by precise and adjustable fractions of a reference clock cycle independent of voltage and temperature. These DLLs have flexible form factors for easier integration and are ideal for high-speed DDR and other interface applications.
True Circuits' high-quality, low-jitter, silicon-proven timing hard macros are available for immediate delivery in a range of frequencies, multiplication factors, sizes and functions in TSMC, UMC and CHRT processes from 0.18‘m to 65nm.
Features
Today's SoC designs require the integration of hundreds of sophisticated IP blocks from various sources. As a result, designers must invest everincreasing amounts of time and effort to understand the behavior of each individual IP block and its interaction with the surrounding circuitry. To speed up the design cycle, a platform-based methodology can be used. Platform-based design is an IP reuse strategy that facilitates the creation and verification of designs containing sophisticated IP from many different sources. Platform ExpressT, Mentor Graphics' platform-based design product, enables design creation and verification by automating IP reuse. The product documents all aspects of IP using the IP-XACTT XML databook format provided through The SPIRIT Consortium. The IP-XACT specification uses XML to create a machine-interpretable IP databook; it includes design information that software tools then use to automatically configure and integrate an IP block into a design. Mentor Graphics was the key developer of the core technology behind The SPIRIT Consortium's IP-XACT specification. Since donating that technology, Mentor has continued to advance the specification by developing design tools that bring the benefits of the specification to the end user. Using the tool and its large number of sophisticated generators, SoC designers can rapidly create and verify their system designs by automating complex, error-prone design creation, IP integration, power domain creation, software generation, verification steps, and a configurable build environment to enable easy design handoff. Based on standards throughout, Platform Express is supplied in Eclipse plug-in format, enabling the tool to operate as part of a larger, customized, design environment. Platform Express provides a new set of generators that support 0-Inr Checkerware verification IP, as well as PSL and OVL assertions. The product also features direct links to the Mentor Graphics QuestaT verification environment and provides a framework for enabling other verification formats.

The SPIRIT ConsortiumT is a global non-profit organization focused on establishing multi-faceted IP/tool integration standards that drive sustainable growth in electronic design. The Consortium currently provides technical specifications that are helping the industry integrate multi-vendor design-flows efficiently. These specifications will benefit integrated device manufacturers by providing faster time-to-market through automated IP configuration, integration and verification. The cooperative development environment of The SPIRIT Consortium has been extremely successful. The IP-XACT specification is the first of several specifications that will be sent to IEEE for consideration of official standardization. The current version of IP-XACT, which addresses an RT-level system integration and configuration specification, has been delivered into the P1685 IEEE standards process.

Silicon-proven Security Systems You Can Trust
SafeNet's IP security solutions deliver the advanced levels of security mandated by new industry standards and market requirements for improved protection of networking and communication systems. SafeXcel IP enables chip vendors to build feature-rich, complete security systems into next-generation SoCs. SafeNet not only provides the best security IP in the industry, we also provide a complete security software solution that is pre-integrated with hardware IP, thereby enabling you to deliver a complete hardware/software system to your customers.
SafeXcel IP - Inline Security Engine
The award-winning SafeXcel IP Inline Security Engine takes a significant step beyond traditional SoC security architectures by deploying micro-programmed hardware for full data plane packet classification, filtering, and flow processing for every packet. The result is superior data rates across all packet sizes and a significant reduction of general-purpose processor utilization for security functions. Its exceptional small packet performance make the security engine an ideal solution for securing Internet applications such as VOIP.
Why Select Security IP from SafeNet?
Award-winning Security Solution
SafeNet's SafeXcel IP Inline Security Engine was recognized by Frost and Sullivan as a unique silicon-proven security solution that enables robust Gigabit-level security processing for next-generation SoCs while reducing design cost and time to market.
"This award also recognizes SafeNet's unique approach in bringing to market not only robust hardware security components, but integrated hardware and software solutions that add significant value to OEM customers."
--Frost & Sullivan
Inline Security Engine -- Features
Support for IPv4 and IPv6, jumbo packets, IPSec and SRTP packet transforms, NAT, NAPT, NAT-T, extended sequence numbers, IP option and extension header muting, complete IP header modifications and updates (length, next-header, TTL, and checksum). Crypto support: DES/3DES (ECB, CBC), AES-128/192/256 (ECB, CBC, CTR), SHA-1 / HMAC, SHA-256 / HMAC, MD5 / HMAC, GHASH / AES-Galois Counter Mode, AES-XCBC-MAC-96, Pseudo RNG for IV generation.
More information
Watch our on-demand Webinar or download the white paper "Security in Silicon"
www.safenet-inc.com/ChipDesign
For more information about SafeNet's award-winning security IP portfolio, please call 443-327-1442 or contact us at OEMNetworking@safenet-inc.com
SafeNet, IncMOSAID Virtual Silicon develops and markets a broad line of process specific, semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) products for the world's leading foundries in 180nm, 130nm, 90nm and 65nm process technologies.
Key products include:
MOSAID MobilizeTM -- Award winning, complete power management platform for 130nm and 90nm SoC designs that can drastically reduce static leakage and dynamic power without requiring special implants or triple well. Key components of the MOSAID Mobilize platform include:
MOSAID MaestroTM -- A fully integrated, programmable Delta-Sigma Fractional-N PLL digital frequency synthesizer targeted for consumer and high-speed networking applications.
MOSAID Maestro PLL products are available for various 65nm, 90nm and 130nm processes and deliver a range of features including:
MOSAID MemorizeTM -- A complete DDR and DDR2 SDRAM memory controller plus interface provided as a blend of hard and soft IP delivering maximum flexibility and high data rates.
MOSAID Memorize is comprised of the following components:
In addition to these SIP product lines, MOSAID Virtual Silicon also offers standard cell libraries, application specific and programmable I/O libraries and compilable memory components.
All of our products are designed to satisfy the demanding requirements of designers who need the highest quality and maximum performance for their SoC designs. IP products labeled as Silicon Readyr have been verified in silicon.
Visit us on the web at www.mosaid.com and register in our Customer Center for access to complete technical datasheets and product downloads.
MOSAID Virtual Silicon Semiconductor IPWith Carbon's RTL compiler and wizard technology, RTL can be automatically imported as a high-performance compiled object into any SystemC simulator, including ARM's RealViewr SoC Designer. For the first time, there is a design flow that provides accurate hardware profiling, integrated hardware and software debug, and execution of software on a hardware model months before silicon exists.
SOC-VSP enables system architects to get an early start on architectural analysis by leveraging legacy RTL to rapidly create a fast system model. SOC-VSP adds cycle-accurate hardware profiling to uncover any architectural deficiencies early in the design cycle. Software developers get an early start validating and debugging their firmware on a hardware-accurate model. SOC-VSP's integrated hardware debug features allow side-by-side hardware and software debugging in the RealView environment. Carbon's optional library of bus protocol transactors enables Carbonized RTL models to plug into a system-level model with a transaction-level interface.
SOC-VSP provides a high-performance, hardware-accurate chip model that can be rapidly assembled and used to validate a chip's architecture, firmware, and hardware on an engineer's desktop.
Carbon Design SystemsTrue Circuits’ complete family of standardized, silicon-proven, low-jitter PLL and DLL hard macros spans nearly all performance points and features typically requested by ASIC, FPGa and SoC designers. using robust state-of-the-art circuits, a methodical and proven design strategy, and a close association with the world’s leading silicon fabrication vendors, true Circuits is able to quickly and reliably create new and innovative designs in a variety of advanced process technologies.
True Circuits’ clock generator, spread spectrum, low bandwidth, high resolution and deskew PLLs support wide operating frequency ranges and multiplication factors over which they deliver optimal performance, eliminating the need for PLL generators that attempt to optimize performance at a single operating point. the clock generator PLL is available with multi-phase outputs and 4 bits of precise factional-N control. the high resolution PLL provides frequency modulation and very high frequency resolution with over 16 bits of control and very low long-term jitter. all PLLs are available in small sizes for easier integration.
True Circuits’ DLLs delay a set of signals by precise and adjustable fractions of a reference clock cycle independent of voltage and temperature. these DLLs have flexible form factors for easier integration and are ideal for high-speed DDr and other interface applications.
True Circuits’ high-quality, low-jitter, silicon-proven timing hard macros are available for immediate delivery in a range of frequencies, multiplication factors, sizes and functions in TSMC, UMC and Chartered processes from 0.25µm to 65nm.
Features
InCyte provides fast and accurate chip estimation at the architectural stage of the design flow. the tool lets you perform tradeoff analysis by visualizing a design across technology nodes, process variants and Ip libraries. users can make macro or micro modifications to their design specifications and immediately quantify their technical and economic impact upon the final chip. InCyte’s comprehensive economic analysis engine includes package recommendations and performs an estimation of final production chip cost. the tool also frees you from your forced dependence on outdated spreadsheet tools, since InCyte fully automates the critical architectural analysis and feasibility phase of the design cycle.
As an InCyte user, you enter your chip specification in an intuitive manner, and in just seconds you are viewing a visualization of your chip design, including an estimated floorplan, complete datasheet, and a comprehensive economic analysis. InCyte then facilitates rapid ‘what-if’ analysis between technology nodes, process variants, Ip options, and IC packages, thus allowing you to make the early, informed decisions that ultimately will result in lower power requirements and reduced risk, die size, and chip cost.
InCyte builds on designers’ strengths by helping them engineer lower cost, higher margin chips. the tool’s economic analysis engine recommends and prices a package, calculates wafer cost and chip yield, analyzes test & assembly costs, and produces an estimation of Nre costs. Its lifecycle analysis function lets you forecast chip cost over time, and return on investment (roI) analysis provides a realistic timetable for profitability on a design.
InCyte enterprise
InCyte enterprise can be fully customized to meet your corporation’s chip estimation and economic analysis needs, as well as to draw upon your internal process technologies and Ip libraries. It is a complete client-server system which operates within a corporate network, providing you with a local, chip estimation environment linked into internal Ip databases. a complete IC economic analysis can be performed with customized economic models.
Chipestimate.com
At www.Chipestimate.com, Giga scale IC makes available a no-cost version of InCyte that performs chip estimations based solely upon industry average foundry and Ip library data. InCyte Lite can be upgraded to include technology data from leading foundries and Ip vendors such as tsMC, uMC, arM (artisan), Virage Logic, and more, thus facilitating significantly more accurate estimations. upgrade subscribers can estimate designs in specific process variants with explicit Ip libraries, and compare a design across various foundry and Ip vendor offerings.
InCyte upgrades, available from Chipestimate.com, also feature a comprehensive IC economic analysis engine which generates accurate estimates of final packaged chip cost. please visit www.Chipestimate.com today.
Giga scale Integration Corporation
10050 North wolfe road, suite sw1-266
Cupertino, CA 95014
USA
Telephone: 408.255.0444
www.GigaIC.com
Poseidon’s Tuner & Builder
tools provide system designers with an integrated environment for
design, optimization and acceleration of processor-based architectures.
With Poseidon’s EDA tools, designers can increase
performance, reduce power, shorten time to market, and reduce cost. Key
applications include video, audio, wireless, and security.| •
Link Training (LTSSM) • Power Management • Error Handling |
•
Transaction Model • Quality of Service (QoS) • Flow Control |
The Agility Compiler delivers SystemC behavioral design and synthesis,
connecting TLM models to hardware for SoC prototyping and verification.
The tool generates FPGA logic and RTL optimized for Design Compiler.
An EETimes Best Product winner, the DK Design Suite is a full ESL
design environment for algorithm acceleration based on ANSI-C. DK
supports system co-design and verification using C/C++/Matlab and RTL
models, and delivers Handel-C synthesis to device-optimized FPGA and
RTL.
Celoxica offers a collection of FPGA based development boards for
embedded system prototyping and algorithm acceleration. The boards
combine high density FPGA devices, soft-core & hard-core
processors and an extensive array of peripherals. Integrated with
Celoxica’s ESL tools and innovative APIs for embedded
processor integration, the RC boards complete Celoxica’s
system design realization environment
By combining Celoxica & Toshiba design technology,
Celoxica’s Toshiba MeP digital media SoC development kit
provides a comprehensive package of software tools, hardware boards and
utilities to help designers understand, evaluate, prototype and develop
the Media embedded Processor into high performance system designs.
CeloxicaThe Virtual Silicon DFS is the industry?s first Silicon Ready?, low-power, programmable delta-sigma fractional-N frequency synthesizer and features:
![]()
TimingDesigner is a flexible, interactive timing analysis and diagram tool. Its intuitive use of timing diagrams and patented spreadsheet technology allow users to model their unique timing challenges, analyze a range of conditions, and obtain accurate results. Designers can define timing constraints, evaluate timing parameters, create specifications, and analyze complex interfaces within their design. TimingDesigner 7.0 provides the ability to better manage growing design complexity by organizing the design into logical components within a single project. It also allows users to automatically merge designated component diagrams to greatly simplify the creation of interface timing diagrams.

The Identify® RTL Debugger is the first and only software tool that allows FPGA-based hardware designs to be functionally debugged directly from the RTL source code. Allowing designers to debug their hardware at the same level it was designed at dramatically reduces the time required to find hardware problems from weeks or months to days, providing significant cost savings and faster time to market. Unlike other approaches, the Identify software allows signals to be easily selected and results viewed directly in the original RTL source and in a waveform display.

Identify® Highlights
Vista Design Environment

To learn more about Vista and Summit’s other industry leading ESL solutions, send email to ESL@sd.com or visit www.sd.com.
Summit Design
Poseidon’s Tuner & Builder tools provide system designers with an integrated environment for design, optimization and acceleration of processor-based architectures. With Poseidon’s EDA tools, designers can increase performance, reduce power, shorten time to market, and reduce cost. Key applications include video, audio, wireless, and security.
Using Tuner, critical HW/SW routines and architectural inefficiencies are identified, greatly reducing development and optimization time. With Builder, the designer can easily generate a complete hardware accelerator system, drastically speeding up selected algorithms. The tools support ASIC and FPGA platforms with ARM, MicroBlaze, PowerPC, and Nios processors. Visit our website and request our technology white paper.
Poseidon Design SystemsSoftJin’s DFM Infrastructure framework, Nirmaan, is designed to jumpstart your DFM tool development effort. You can focus on developing the application while we handle the geometries. License Nirmaan and reach to your market faster!
SoftJin is a customized EDA software development services company and has proven experience in developing complex customized EDA tools for its clients. Please visit www.softjin.com/DFM to find out more information on Nirmaan and free download of source code of GDSII/OASIS libraries!

InterCon cLGA sockets provide a solderless connection between chip and board. Our sockets are used in both high volume production as well as for test socket applications. Our patented BeCu contacts are being used in test applications requiring 1000+ cycles for test and burn in. Our fully automated production line allows us to build very high volumes of product with pricing below $.03 per contact in volume. Product is available on .050”cc and 1mm. Custom sizes and selectively loaded housings are available. Current sizes range from 50 position through 3800 position sockets


Cost management is one of the most important implementation considerations for a design manager. Join Doug Dreibelbis, IBM’s Senior Engineer in the ASIC Product Marketing group, for this one-hour Web Seminar hosted by Avnet Electronics Marketing as he discusses how to best manage the total cost of ASIC development and provides direction for how to minimize costs using the IBM approach.
Web Seminar topics include:
To register, visit www.em.avnet.com/asicwebseminar
Avnet Electronics Marketing