Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Monterey Design Systems | Subject: IC Wizard V2.2
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 10 October 2001
Hierarchical approach adds structure to
design
Monterey Design Systems has announced version 2.2 of IC Wizard, the hierarchical design planner that drives its System-Driven Physical Design solution.
Monterey Design Systems has announced version 2.2 of IC Wizard, the hierarchical design planner that drives its System-Driven Physical Design solution With this release, Monterey is the first to provide the full spectrum of capabilities needed to restructure and optimise physical hierarchy
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 4 May 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Faster turnaround for submicron chip designs
Monterey Design Systems has released version 1.5 of Dolphin, its complete physical design solution.
Design methodology bridges gap to fabrication
Monterey Design Systems describes System-Driven Physical Design as the first design methodology to enable physical chip implementation from system to GDSII tapeout of SoCs up to 100 million gates.
Monterey is also the first to provide a hierarchical global router and port placer that take advantage of visibility through all levels of hierarchy.
A hierarchical physical design flow must start early in the design cycle, pre-RTL, and continue in lock step with the logic design and physical design all the way through final tape out.
This top down hierarchical flow starts with the initial partitioning of the design into subsystems.
Further reading
IC Wizard does the trick for Morphics Technology
Fabless semiconductor company Morphics Technology has successfully completed multiple chips ranging from 5 to 15 million gates using Monterey's IC Wizard hierarchical design planner.
Uprated physical implementation system
Monterey Design Systems has released version 2.0 of its Dolphin physical implementation system.
Chip-level constraints must be partitioned and allocated to the individual subsystems.
Each subsystem may then be compartmentalized and offloaded to separate processes for logic synthesis, logic optimisation, physical prototyping, and final implementation.
During this process, the chip designers must develop a physical hierarchical structure that will meet all constraints and not exceed the capabilities of the physical design tools.
When complete, the subsystems are reassembled at the top level to complete the design.
The hierarchical design planner is responsible for the initial partitioning into subsystems, the allocation of the constraints to the subsystems, the management and optimisation of the hierarchical structure, and the communication between processes throughout the entire flow.
New functionality added to IC Wizard 2.2 includes hierarchical global routing and port placement.
IC Wizard's global router has full visibility through multiple levels of hierarchy.
This results in an optimal route and also allows it to find the best position and layer assignments for the ports.
When dealing with high-performance designs, the user may wish to physically relocate a logic module from one part of the hierarchy to a completely separate part.
Older generation hierarchy managers might allow the user to move a logic module up or down the structure, but they would not allow you to relocate it to a completely different branch of the tree.
IC Wizard gives the user full flexibility to reconfigure the hierarchical tree structure for optimal physical implementation.
IC Wizard also allows the user to automatically bubble-up all hard blocks, or only selected hard blocks to the top-level.
The design planner must allocate chip-level constraints to individual blocks that may be used to drive the design and implementation of each of the blocks.
IC Wizard automatically adjusts the block placement when necessary and supports constraint allocation and re-allocation of timing slack as well.
It also allows for adjustments to constraints to accommodate changes made to the physical hierarchy by operations such as those listed above.
IC Wizard 2.2 is available immediately on all supported platforms.
Pricing begins at $124,000 per year (US list price).
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