CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
11 April 2005
Product News
Dolphin Technology Endorses Magma's Advanced Memory BIST Solution within Blast DFT
Magma® Design Automation Inc . and Dolphin Technology, a provider of high-performance semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) blocks, announced that Dolphin is endorsing the MBIST (memory built-in self-test) solution within Magma's Blast DFTT. The combination of Dolphin's advanced memory IP and Magma's MBIST provide a complete memory test solution. MBIST's Built-in Repair Analysis for Dolphin's multi-dimensional redundancy schemes enables high yields without incurring additional test-time penalties. The comprehensive memory test algorithms, along with the at-speed test application, ensure high quality. Dolphin's memory IP and Magma's Blast DFT's automated integrated solution provides quick-turnaround time and repeatability for complex SoC (system-on-chip) designs.
MBIST in Blast DFT is one of the technologies resulting from Magma's Cobra development that was announced on April 4. It was specially designed to address the memory test problems that today's complex SoC designers are encountering at 90- and 65-nanometers. At these process nodes, today's complex designs often include hundreds or even thousands of embedded memories requiring intelligent and efficient test strategies, which Blast DFT is uniquely designed to address.
"Today's complex, high-density memories for nanometer processes require a thorough understanding of the manufacturing process and defects to attain high yield," said Mo Tamjidi, president and CEO at Dolphin Technology. "Blast DFT's automatic generation of timing constraints and placement requirements, eases the integration of memories and associated test logic, and provides visibility into test problems at the earliest stage. Dolphin's market-proven, high-performance, high-quality memories, combined with the well-integrated test solution in Magma's RTL-to-GDSII flow, provide mutual customers high-yield and area-efficient memory implementation. Magma's comprehensive test algorithms provide excellent coverage for new defects that occur in today's advanced processes due to finer geometries."
Dolphin Technology provides a wide range of silicon-proven, memory semiconductor IP for many target markets, from telecommunications to consumer electronics. The company has assembled a core team of experienced memory design veterans that have created an extensive offering of highly optimized memory blocks and one of the broadest ranges of high-speed, high-density, low-power memory compilers, including RAMpiler®, RAMpiler+®, ROMpiler® and CAMpiler®. These memory technologies have been successfully proven in many generations of silicon and are currently used by some of the largest technology companies in the world.
"Dolphin's small footprint memory designs, supporting two-dimensional redundancy, have been production-proven in consumer applications worldwide," said Kam Kittrell, general manager of Magma's Logic Design Business Unit. "We are pleased to offer a memory BIST solution that, in conjunction with Dolphin's easy-to-use memory IP blocks and compilers, can substantially improve the yield of such high-volume parts."
Blast DFT is an integrated design-for-test solution in Magma's RTL-to-GDSII flow. It supports a comprehensive set of DFT features including full scan, TAP and Boundary Scan insertion, Memory BIST and Logic BIST. This new product incorporates at-speed test via automatically-generated hardware that is synthesized on-the-fly and inserted in the host design. With built-in repair analysis, Blast DFT's MBIST supports multiple dimensions of redundancy, such as row and column, and can be deployed for hard, soft or composite repair strategies. Its diagnostic capabilities enable root-cause failure analysis, including full bit-fail map generation for trend analysis and demonstrably significant yield improvement. The solution includes automatically generated test benches to ease verification and IEEE 1450 (STIL) manufacturing test patterns.
Availability and Demonstration
Blast DFT is available now from Magma Design Automation. This enhanced DFT technology from Magma and Dolphin Technology will be demonstrated at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in Anaheim, Calif., June 13-16, 2005, at Magma's booth #2250.
Dolphin Technology Inc. is a provider of high performance semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) blocks that include embedded memory and memory compiler products, high performance and standard IOs and high performance standard cell libraries. Advanced design technology incorporated into Dolphin's SIP blocks enable System-on-Chip (SoC) designs to achieve faster clock rates, lower dynamic and leakage power, smaller die size and reduced manufacturing cost. For more information about Dolphin and its products, please visit http://www.dolphin-ic.com .
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