Analog designers glum on tool availability

Analog designers glum on tool availability
LOS ANGELES — Digital designers who think their tool set lacks an automation punch could've taken some comfort by attending the analog and mixed-signal design panel, titled "Survival Strategies for Mixed-Signal Systems-on-chip" held last Thursday (June 8) at the Design Automation Conference.

Hosted by Steve Ohr of EE Times, panelists from the analog design and EDA community sourly debated whether there is a lack, or simply a slow development, of automated solutions for the analog, mixed-signal design world. But they did not paint a positive picture of available analog, mixed-signal tools.

The increasing use of analog and mixed-signal circuitry in system-on-chip designs requires analog and mixed-signal engineers to crank out new blocks faster than ever, panelists said. But since these blocks are not targeted for use as discrete devices, designers must now create blocks that will sit alongside or sometimes be buried within digital blocks. This requires designers to more closely monitor device and system noise, among other headaches, panelists said.

Mixed-signal and especially analog tools are still largely Spice-level tools that actually require engineers to manually push polygons.

Nevertheless, progress is being made in the analog EDA world, according to panelists representing the EDA industry — Roy McGuffin of Antrim Design Systems; Henry Chang of Cadence Design Systems; and Rob Rutenbar from Carnegie Mellon. A host of EDA companies, including Barcelona, Neo Linear, Dolphin, and Cadence, now offering analog synthesis, participants said.

"The truth is we have more choices than ever," said Chang. "Not only do we have tools, but now we have IP intellectual property available to us from Dolphin, Innovative Semiconductor, and Design and Reuse."

Methodologies are also improving, Chang said. Engineers are now in a position to adopt a platform-based design approach, making sure they have the proper design environment to incorporate available IP, he said.

Synthesis debate

The definition of synthesis is hotly debated in the analog, mixed-signal world. At the panel, Rudolf Koch of Infineon Technologies, Prof. Gorges Gielen of Katholieke University, and Erland Olson of Broadcom took exception to the use of the word by other panelists.

While synthesis in the digital world usually refers to a tool that can optimize and compile high-level language into a meatier language or implementation — in some cases over a lunch break — synthesis in the analog world typically attempts — and often fails, according to users on the panel — to cut down on polygon pushing.

In addition to better analog synthesis tools, users also called for better analog CAD tools, IP integration tools, higher level verification and tools specialized in increasing productivity for the design of high-performance cells.