San Jose, CA and Tokyo , Japan - May 5th, 2010
GRID Simulation Technology today announced SimCHECK, a qualification tool for verifying the accuracy of the Electromigration and IR drop (EMIR) simulation results of complex networks such as power grids, signal and clock nets, and silicon substrates in IP Blocks, and SoCs.
Today’s generation of low power SoCs manufactured at advanced process nodes are challenged by competing and often conflicting electrical design requirements; high computational functions, low power operating budgets, and increasingly higher frequencies. ICs designed to meet these requirements are susceptible to transient noise effects due to the high density of the transistors and miles of interconnect wiring. Unseen variations in IR voltage drop can have dramatic impacts on product yields in terms of leakage, performance, and reliability. Qualified, SPICE accurate, EMIR analysis is now a critical mandate for verification and sign-off of functionality, timing, and reliability of these designs.
Mitigating Risk from Inconsistent EMIR Simulation Results
Current generation EMIR analysis tools suffer from limitations in speed, capacity, and accuracy when analyzing large IP blocks and complex SoCs. To handle these ‘oversized’ problems, EMIR simulators often employ reduction methods to simplify the size of the networks being analyzed. While these methods are effective in reducing runtimes, they immediately create unknown sources of loss of accuracy in simulation, and the loss of traceability between simulation results and the original circuit under evaluation. Unfortunately, there has been no “Golden Numeric” reference to identify and quantify where tradeoffs are made. To ensure manufacturability of designs, a consistent Quality of Result (QoR) from EMIR simulation is necessary to verify if any trade-offs made are acceptable; and to understand any introduced sources of error.
SimCHECK Ensures No Compromises in EMIR Analysis Accuracy
SimCHECK provides today’s designer a rigorous method to designers to numerically account for all EMIR impacts on their designs and verify the results from any EMIR simulator utilizing Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law (KVL), Kirchhoff’s Current Law (KCL), and Power Conservation Law.
SimCHECK automatically identifies and maps non-compliant values to the exact XY location on the physical netlist and easily integrates with popular EDA tools utilizing standard industry formats.
“SimCHECK is very helpful to ensure the quality of result of IP design blocks and the entire IC design,” said Mitsuo Saito, Senior Fellow and VP of Engineering, Toshiba Semiconductor. “Numeric verification of IR voltage drop and electro-migration analysis is a necessary step to verify Quality of Results, total power consumption, and the manufacturability of designs when using multiple simulation tools.”
“SimCHECK reads, qualifies, traces, and report all simulation accuracy errors for any complex network,” said Wai-Yan Ho, CEO of GRID Simulation Technology. “Finally, CAD teams and designers now have a network analysis with no compromises to qualify the results of any simulator and reduction method. With SimCHECK as a new golden reference tool, we expect design teams will use the benefits of better analysis to create higher performance designs with greater reliability and fewer failures.”
About GRID Simulation Technology
GRID Simulation Technology, Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based Electronic Design Automation (EDA) company dedicated to solving the world's largest and most complex electronics problems at true SPICE-accuracy through its revolutionary new analysis technology.
The company's flagship products, NanoRAIL and SimCHECK, provide analysis of IC power grid problems including IR voltage drop and electro-migration (EM), and the qualification of complex power network analysis results.
The company is a privately held California Corporation headquartered in Morgan Hill , CA with offices located in: Los Angeles , CA ; East Fishkill, NY; and Tokyo , Japan .
For More Information Contact:
info@gridsimtech.com
GRID Simulation Technology, Inc.
1295 East Dunne Avenue, Suite 215 Morgan Hill , CA 95037
http://www.gridsimtech.com
SimCHECK™ is a trademark of GRID Simulation Technology, Inc.