The problem is that at the architectural level, partitioning makes sense. We are grouping functions together because they work together. All too often at lower levels, we are fracturing the design not into pieces that make functional sense, but merely into pieces that the design tools can handle. Each of those partitionings creates its own unique view of the design, so that moving between them -- as must be done during verification -- becomes a treacherous journey.

In this issue of ISD we examine SoC partitioning from this point of view -- the disparity between the functional blocks of the architecture, the manageable blocks of the synthesis tools and the full-chip view of extraction tools.

We look at three approaches to making the design converge, from three different design teams. In our cover story,a chip design group at Agilent Technologies describes their SoC methodology. They use up to seven layers of hierarchy,starting with 150,000-gate blocks acceptable to their physical-synthesis tool,and gradually build up by routing blocks together. By keeping detailed routing inside blocks that are small, and by carefully preplanning interblock routing with floor-planning tools, Agilent achieves timing convergence.

Another alternative is explored in two other papers, a full paper from ReShape Design and a short working paper from Toshiba spin-off ArTile Microsystems. Both of those techniques also start out with small, synthesizable blocks for timing closure. But those methodologies use abutted-block techniques to manage timing closure on interblock routing. Both,incidentally,rely on proprietary tools.

A quick note in our "Behind the News" section hints at another kind of approach to the problem. Agilent moved from conventional synthesis and timing estimates based on simple wire-load models to physical synthesis in order to increase the underlying block size. That had the effect of reducing the number of blocks in a typical chip from nearly 180 to about 70. Synplicity, in their entry into the ASIC synthesis arena, claims that by increasing the speed of a synthesis tool, and hence its capacity, the synthesis block size can be pushed all the way up to the place and route block size, eliminating one of those big discontinuities. Of course,there are a lot of footnotes to the company's claims, including big assumptions about wire-load models.

But here is the basis for an interesting discussion. How do we deal with the disparities between architectural, synthesis, place and route,and extraction views of the design? Is there an approach to fracturing of the architecture that leaves everyone,at every level, working on blocks that are functionally independent, physically meaningful and yet tractable for the tools? Or will partitioning continue to be one of the unrevealed art forms of the chip designer's craft?