CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
7 June 2004
Product News
Apaches' SkyHawk Removes Guesswork from Power Grid Design in Nanometer Chips
Apache Design Solutions ( http://www.apache-da.com ) announced SkyHawk, a new automated constraint-driven power grid generation and optimization engine for nanometer SoCs. The new product helps chip designers determine power grid requirements early in the design process, refine the power grid as the design evolves, and analyze it at every stage of the design cycle. SkyHawk uses the same simulation kernel as RedHawk-SDL, Apache's signoff dynamic power-grid solution validated in TSMC's reference flow 5.0. SkyHawk aims to prevent power integrity issues that may be difficult to fix late in the design cycle.
SkyHawk generates multi-layer, multi-region power grids while honoring all routing, power, and blockage constraints. It also considers the effects of simultaneous switching logic and I/Os when determining the amount and type of routing resources needed by a power grid. To meet dynamic power requirements, a designer needs to use a power-grid planning tool driven by true transient simulation with SPICE-level accuracy. SkyHawk, combined with RedHawk-SDL's vectorless-dynamic engine, generates power grid designs that ensure silicon-proven accuracy.
"With the complexity of nanometer designs and power requirements, our customers can't afford to over-design or under-design the power-grid anymore. SkyHawk is Apache's next major solution after RedHawk-SDL to address the SoC power challenges from prototyping to signoff," said Keith Mueller, Apache vice president of worldwide sales and marketing.
"Accuracy has always been our highest priority. SkyHawk's utilization of the proven simulation kernel from RedHawk-SDL brings both static and dynamic effects into the early-stage power-grid generation for an efficient utilization of chip resources while meeting power integrity requirements," said Andrew Yang, CEO of Apache.
With SkyHawk's fast turnaround time, designers can explore different power grid design styles and options. The region-based power grid planning capability enables designers to avoid excessive use of routing resources where power routes are not needed. In addition, SkyHawk allows designers to explore different options for connecting memories and other intellectual property (IP) blocks to the full-chip grid.
SkyHawk will be available as a beta release in Q3 of this year. It is licensed on Linux, Sun Solaris, and HP-UX. Annual license pricing varies with configuration and starts at $150,000.
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