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Product category: Design and Development Software
News Release from: Cadence Design Systems
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 20 October 2004

Effective current source
model gains popularity

Magma Design Automation's IC implementation system now supports the effective current source model (ECSM) from Cadence as the industry's most accurate timing model

Already used by the Cadence SoC Encounter Global Physical Synthesis RTL-to-GDSII system, ECSM is now the timing model of choice for Magma's Blast Fusion. ECSM improves delay calculation accuracy by modelling a cell's output drive as a current source rather than a voltage source. Current sources are more effective at tracking nonlinear transistor switching behaviour and permit highly accurate modelling of long complex interconnects, common in many of today's largest nanometre low power designs.

"As part of our efforts to provide Magma customers with more advanced timing analysis, Blast Fusion now supports ECSM as our delay modelling of choice for timing signoff", said Premal Buch, General Manager of Magma's Analysis and Signoff Business Unit.

"Achieving signoff-quality results in an RTL-to-GDSII flow depends on high-quality models, and nanometre signoff success hinges on the availability and use of accurate delay data, which ECSM provides using an extension to the current de-facto industry-standard format".

The industry's traditional library model, which represents delay as either a 2D table or a polynomial equation, does not provide the level of accuracy demanded at nanometre geometries.

This model begins to break down at 130nm and is especially problematic at 90 and 65nm.

A leading-edge timing model offering accurate and practical modelling of nanometre delay is mandatory, particularly for today's low-power applications which require a more effective tradeoff between performance and power.

ECSM library support is already available from major IP vendors, and both Cadence and Magma provide characterisation software to generate ECSM library data.

Cadence and Magma worked together to ensure that ECSM can be combined with existing delay models into a single format.

This enables customers to utilise the power of ECSM while maintaining a consistent set of timing views that support legacy flows.

"Recognising the accuracy and ease of modelling advantage of ECSM over the current traditional solution, we've made a conscious decision to open it up for use by the industry at large", said Wei-Jin Dai, Vice President, Encounter platform at Cadence.

"We are pleased by Magma's decision to leverage ECSM in their product solutions and expect the rest of the industry to follow suit".

"ECSM provides accurate timing models for higher quality designs, improved quality of silicon (QoS), and faster time to market with first-pass silicon".

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