CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
4 April 2005
Implementation Investments
Apache's Power Closure Sign-Off Flow Enables First-Pass Silicon Success for Airgo Networks
Apache Design Solutions , a provider of physical power integrity solutions for system-on-chip (SoC) designs, announced that Airgo Networks , pioneer and world leader of multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) technology used Apache's RedHawk full-chip dynamic power integrity solution to achieve first-pass silicon success of their 802.11 next generation Wi-Fi chipset. Airgo successfully taped out multiple designs using Apache's physical power integrity solution.
"RedHawk enabled us to analyze dynamic voltage drop effects in addition to static IR drop analysis, resulting in more robust designs," said Derrick Lin, senior director of engineering at Airgo. "RedHawk's ability to accurately detect potential chip failures caused by dynamic power supply noise prior to tape out has provided us with a high degree of confidence in our power grid design. RedHawk is an integral part of our sign-off flow."
"With over 30 customers and 100 tapeouts worldwide, our physical power integrity solution is making a significant contribution in lowering production cost and increasing manufacturing yield," stated Andrew Yang, CEO of Apache. "The adoption of our power closure flow by a leading Wi-Fi technology company such as Airgo further reinforces how our solution is addressing the critical missing link in advanced nanometer designs."
RedHawk is a full-chip Vectorless DynamicT physical power integrity solution for SoC power closure sign-off of 130nm, 90nm, and 65nm designs. Certified by TSMC's 5.0 Reference Flow and correlated with silicon measurements and SPICE, RedHawk addresses dynamic power issues such as simultaneous switching output (SSO) for core, memory, clock, and I/O, as well as effects of on-chip inductance, package RLC , and decoupling capacitance.
RedHawk enables designers to identify dynamic "hot spots," examine the impact on timing, accurately pinpoint the cause of dynamic voltage drop, and automatically repair the source of supply noise. With RedHawk's integrated transistor-level characterization and unsurpassed capacity, designers can effectively reach power closure sign-off for high performance SoCs, including those utilizing advanced low-power design techniques such as leakage current control, power gating, multiple voltage domains, and multiple threshold transistors.
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