Calibre Design Solutions takes a look back at 2021
Okay, is everyone ready for an end-of-year wrapup? It’s certainly been an eventful 2021 for Calibre Design Solutions, even if most of it took place on the phone, in online meetings, and from our home offices. Despite COVID variants closing the door on what had been the first tentative steps back to “normal” business operations, our forward-thinking strategists and engineers were on top of, and in some cases ahead of, the constantly evolving needs and requirements of the semiconductor industry.
Innovations in technology and functionality are a hallmark of the Calibre toolsuite, and Covid didn’t change a thing in that regard. In fact, one of our biggest announcements of the year didn’t even come from Calibre! Last September, we introduced mPower, a new, complementary toolsuite that provides fast, accurate, and scalable signoff power integrity analysis for both analog and digital designs of any size, from the smallest block to the largest full-chip layout. Industry response has been positive around the globe, and the mPower team has been busy responding to inquiries. If you somehow missed the main event, watch this webinar or download a copy of the technical paper for the details!
But while that was happening, Calibre Design Solutions certainly wasn’t slacking. Here’s just a few of the cutting-edge technologies we were exploring in 2021:
Silicon Photonics – Silicon photonics is an emerging technology in the semiconductor industry. To move into the mainstream, it needs the support of the EDA industry to ensure silicon photonics designs can receive the same rigorous verification as IC designs. Learn what Calibre is doing in Advancing silicon photonics physical verification through innovation.
Cloud computing – If you haven’t heard, cloud computing is kind of a thing now. The Calibre Design Solutions group has been leading the transition to EDA in the cloud as a new operational opportunity, by helping companies understand the value of cloud computing, and how and why they can gain the most benefit from its adoption.
- EDA in the cloud—Now more than ever
- Calibre in the cloud: Unlocking massive scaling and cost efficiencies
- Siemens, AMD, and Microsoft collaborate on EDA in the cloud
- Reliability verification in the cloud delivers significant runtime benefits
Machine learning – No, your coffee maker isn’t smarter than you…yet. But we’ve been implementing machine learning techniques to improve the predictive accuracy and capabilities of Calibre tools, starting with some of the hardest challenges—predicting manufacturing process results. In fact, reading the following paper gives you an idea of just how much goes into applying machine learning to these types of issues:
With the information and experience gained from these efforts, the Calibre Design Solutions team is exploring a variety of opportunities to implement machine learning technology in the Calibre Design toolsuite. Is that your coffee maker raising an eyebrow over there?
Even while we move into the future, we never lose sight of the fact that the day-to-day business still needs to get done! Here are just a few of the topics Calibre engineers published this year to explain the many capabilities and resources of the Calibre nmPlatform that help design teams and foundries reduce tapeout schedules, minimize time and resources, and improve productivity:
“Shift left” early design verification
Accelerate time to market with Calibre nmLVS Recon technology, a new paradigm for circuit verification
Accelerate early design exploration & verification for faster time to market
Construct by correction with selective verification enhances productivity
On-demand Calibre signoff DRC during implementation
Calibre RealTime Custom DRC places signoff verification into the custom IC designer’s hands
MaxLinear and Calibre RealTime Digital: Signoff DRC in P&R
Extending and enhancing 3D IC verification
Automated ESD protection verification for 2.5D and 3D ICs
2.5D/3D IC latch-up prevention: an automated verification strategy
Taking 2.5D/3DIC physical verification to the next level
Enhanced error debugging
Automated post-processing of DRC errors improves debugging productivity
Of course, all of that is still just a tiny peek at our full body of work. Keep visiting the Calibre Design Solutions webpages and Design with Calibre blog for our latest technical papers, webinars, and videos. Thanks to all of you who send us comments and questions—keep ‘em coming! Here’s to a happy, productive, and innovative 2022!
