Posted Jun 2, 2010, by John Ferguson
In my last few posts, I began discussing on what it takes to enable software quality and support. This particular post will focus on the latter, support.
Of course the goal of any descent software provider is to deliver software that is bug free, intuitive to use, and performs a valuable service. While we strive for perfection, in reality these goals can never be fully achieved. In the EDA world, … Read More
Tags:
Mentor Graphics,
Physical Verification,
Calibre,
Quality,
Support
Posted Mar 30, 2010, by Michael White
In both my last post, and in John Ferguson’s posts, the reasons, challenges and costs associated with “waivers” for DRC were discussed. As we have both pointed out, this is a growing problem as the IC industry increases its use of 3rd party IP while simultaneously the number of waivers within that IP is also increasing – resulting in a sea of waivers to deal with.
As we have deployed our Calibre … Read More
Tags:
Waiver,
Fab-lite,
Fabless,
Calibre,
IC Design,
Physical Verification,
Foundries,
Foundry
Posted Jan 28, 2010, by Michael White
Design rule checking (DRC) or physical verification used to be easy. For example, run some 1-D width and spacing checks to ensure things will resolve and won’t short and you are good to go. These checks were simple to write, fast to run and understandable, and quick to debug. Today is a new world order, where none of these attributes are true anymore. An increasing number of checks are 2-D, very … Read More
Tags:
IDM,
IC Design,
Pattern Matching,
EDA,
SoC,
eqDRC,
Calibre,
Fabless,
Physical Verification,
Productivity,
Foundries,
Equation-Based DRC,
PV,
Sign-off,
Fab-lite
Posted Jan 27, 2010, by John Ferguson
When asked about the value that the Calibre platform brings to the design community, most folks will respond with performance, foundry support, and ease of debugging. While these are all valuable aspects and traits of Calibre, there is one more benefit that is often taken for granted: support.
The word “support” is something bandied around loosely in EDA. Saying you have good support is akin to saying … Read More
Tags:
DRC,
EDA Ssoftware Support,
Calibre,
LVS,
Physical Verification
Posted Jan 15, 2010, by Michael White
Historically, design rule checking (DRC) was a black or white proposition—either you passed all your DRC’s or you fixed the errors until you did pass. Fast forward to today where much/most of the IP you use is from 3rd parties and/or your product has an increasing percentage of memory content and your design is never DRC clean at tape out. Your design team is now constantly waiving over and over and … Read More
Tags:
Foundry,
Foundries,
IC Design,
DRC,
SVRF,
EDA,
Tax,
Waiver,
Calibre,
Physical Verification,
Fab-lite,
Productivity,
Fabless,
Sign-off,
eqDRC,
SoC,
Equation-Based DRC
Posted Dec 17, 2009, by Michael White
Since DAC we have heard a lot about physical verification tools claiming they can read the Calibre(R) SVRF/TVF syntax natively. This blog explores why competitive EDA companies are trying to use Calibre SVRF/TVF, the challenges involved, and the risks to customers.
Why Do Competing PV Products Want to Use Calibre SVRF?
Calibre is a primary sign-off standard at all the major foundries and IDMs, and … Read More
Tags:
Foundries,
Fabless,
Foundry,
TVF,
Translators,
Direct Read,
PV,
DRC,
Sign-off,
SVRF,
Calibre,
Syntax,
IC Design,
Equation-Based DRC,
IDM,
Fab-lite,
Native Read,
EDA,
Physical Verification,
eqDRC
Posted Dec 15, 2009, by John Ferguson
I don’t normally take the time to respond to any of the various competitive claims out there. But recently in ESNUG 483, item #2, there was a posting entitled “We recently dumped Mentor Calibre for Magma Quartz DRC/LVS” (http://www.deepchip.com/items/0483-02.html) that I feel needs to be addressed because it is misleading. So let me lay out the facts to set the record straight.
Tezzaron Semiconductor … Read More
Tags:
Deepchip,
DRC,
Calibre,
Quartz,
Tezzaron,
LVS,
Physical Verification
Posted Nov 20, 2009, by David Abercrombie
In case you missed the webinar by Jim Culp on November 3rd, I wanted to give you an opportunity to see what you missed. Jim is a Senior Engineer in IBM’s Advanced Physical Design and Technology Integration team. He is leading a team in the development of Parametric DFM and the mitigation of Circuit Limited Yield (CLY). During the webinar he discussed how CLY is becoming the leading contributor to yield … Read More
Tags:
Power,
Physical Verification,
Yield,
Design Quality,
Design for Manufacturing,
IC Verification,
Leakage,
DRC,
IC Design
Posted Sep 30, 2009, by John Ferguson
A new season of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” recently started. Have you seen this show? My wife, Cherie, loves it; she finds it inspirational to watch these folks put them through such a tough ordeal in order to improve their health. I enjoy it as well, though my motives are completely different. There are some pretty large individuals on that show. Somehow watching them makes me feel less self-conscious … Read More
Tags:
DRC,
Performance,
Calibre,
Runtime,
Scaling,
Physical Verification,
PV
Posted Aug 20, 2009, by David Abercrombie
I got some questions from my last installment of this series asking for some pictures of defects that caused yield issues in production that could have been avoided during design. It struck me that most designers probably never get a chance to see the manufacturing problems their designs encounter. Since my background is in the fab, I wrongly assumed everyone had lived through the same pain as myself. … Read More
Tags:
Reliability,
IC Verification,
Yield,
Design Quality,
Design for Manufacturing,
Scoring,
Design Rules,
IC Design,
Physical Verification,
Design Rule Checking
