CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
20 January 2010
Implementation Investments
Apache’s Power and Noise Solutions for Chip-Package-System Convergence Adopted by Sigma Designs for Digital Media SoCs
Apache Design Solutions announced that Sigma Designs, Inc., a leader in digital media processing system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for consumer electronics, has adopted Apache’s RTL to sign-off power and noise integrity products. PowerArtist-XPTM provides a complete RTL power optimization platform with fully-integrated advanced analysis and automatic reduction. RedHawkTM enables full-chip dynamic power analysis from early-stage design to sign-off.
In September 2009, Apache acquired Sequence Design, expanding the company’s product offerings from the earliest stages of RTL design all the way to the physical signoff level. Sigma Designs chose Apache to analyze power as early in the design flow as possible, for maximum impact on cost control and chip power.
“Power is always a concern for our end users. Many of our chips go into systems with little to no cooling capability and battery life is important for portable media,” said Jacques Martinella, Vice President of Engineering at Sigma Design. “We need to keep delivering the same power levels at 40nm designs, even as speeds increase by 50%. Apache’s ability to analyze power early, and show us where power is wasted and where it will peak, was key to our choice of PowerArtist and RedHawk.”
Sigma’s early results from two blocks analyzed during evaluation showed that PowerArtist-XP was able to exactly point to where, when and why power was consumed. Utilizing both the power reduction techniques in the tool and the advanced visual environment, Sigma Designs was able to quickly reduce power. A key capability in PowerArtist-XP identifies critical peak power cycles across multiple simulations for RedHawk dynamic voltage drop analysis, which will help Sigma reduce the risk of peak power-related chip failures.
“Sigma is a leader in high-performance digital media processing SoCs,” said Vic Kulkarni, senior vice president and general manager of the RTL business unit at Apache. “We are pleased to be able to meet their power needs at smaller geometries with Apache’s new range of platforms.”
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