Design workflow management enhances SoC design quality and efficiency

Technology and library management
At GUC, for example, the project leader prepares technology and library files for the project team. This step maintains a centralized database of all design libraries and technology files. Each project has its own library configuration file that is created by the project leader and shared by all team members. A library configuration file describes the design's IP libraries. Designers only need to specify the library configuration file in the system and no longer have to prepare library setting for tools by their own.

WFM Library Manager provides a convenient environment and the project leader can use it to review and modify library’s configuration easily. (Figure 7)


Design data management
Before executing their jobs, project team members need to arrange their design data  in a unified design data directory structure provided by WFM, as shown in Figure 8. It is a four layer hierarchical structure that reflects the design and job progress. The first layer is the design stage layer, such as trial, stable and final. The second layer is the design name layer. Designers can partition their design on this layer. The 3rd layer is the job stage layer. The 4th layer identifies a job stage’s version. Figure 9 shows these job stages.

Users can easily explore the design data and trace the design history with a built-in version control mechanism. An important feature of WFM Data Management is that it can advise users the correct input data they need for each design stage. When integrated with the ticket execution mechanism, WFM can automatically pick up the correct data. This reduces the chance of making mistakes by using the wrong data.



Members of the project team can use WFM Data Manager to maintain design data and the project leader can easily review the project progress on the GUI. An example is shown in Figure 10.