Saratoga, California, May 19, 2008 - Library Technologies, Inc.(LTI)
announced today availability of CCSTEST, library verification tool suite
to ascertain the accuracy and completeness of CCS based liberty libraries.
Current source based delay modeling is becoming popular as modeling
of RC based interconnect becomes important. However this created a
verification problem. Unlike previous generation of delay models where
cell characterization model and delay calculation model assumed the same
lumped capacitance approximation, current source models are used with
distributed loads. As a result, it is important to be able to check
the accuracy of the models under distributed load conditions. This
is usually done for isolated instances of clock drivers in a manual
fashion by comparing delay calculation to spice simulation. CCSTEST
suite automates this process by generating test-bench circuits for every
timing arc of each cell both at Spice level and verilog level, and with
RC network load using a timing analyzer. Test-bench includes instances
of the same cell as its fanout. This way both the driver model as well
as the receiver models can be incorporated into the test-bench.
"Once a problem case has been identified by CCSTEST, the source of
the error can be further narrowed by changing the fanout conditions
or RC network loading or characterization setup if possible," said
Dr. Mehmet Cirit, president of Library Technologies, Inc., "The process
may also be used with non-RC load models, and may identify errors
in driver and receiver models as well structural errors in existing
libraries and missing timing arcs." CCSTEST is bundled with SolutionWare
automatic characterization and modeling product. It is available for
free to existing users of SolutionWare with support and maintenance
agreement. Tests can be performed for core cells, IO's and memories. Run
time of CCSTEST is a small fraction of the characterization time.
"Quite frequently cells are not described correctly in liberty
libraries. They may have wrong values for some timing entries,
or no entries for some critical timing arcs. Input capacitances
may be wrong. Slope and load ranges may compromise delay calculation
accuracy. They may be derated out of range. Liberty model may be incompatible
with Verilog models," said Dr. Cirit, "We see such situations frequently
with home made libraries, and even with commercial libraries. A proper
exhaustive test environment is the only way to catch problems at their
source." Library Technologies, Inc. also offers a test service for
existing libraries using CCSTEST suite.
One of the challenges facing designer moving into leading edge processes is assuring themselves that the new current based models are
capturing timing accuracy as best as possible. CCSTEST suite provides
the right methodology and tools to address these concerns,
by integrating the test environment into library creation process.
About Library Technologies, Inc.
Library Technologies, Inc. is a private company, developing and marketing
various integrated circuit design and analysis tools. Its products include
SolutionWare which does cell, IO and memory characterization and modeling,
Cellopt for cell level timing and power optimization, ChipTimer for design
optimization and timing closure, PowerTeam for Verilog based dynamic
gate level power simulation and finally YieldOpt for process variation
analysis. More information can be found at
http://www.libtech.com.
Contacts:
Mehmet Cirit
President
Library Technologies, Inc.
(508) 741-1214
Email Contact