Assigned readings

SIGNALSTORM NANOMETER DELAY CALCULATOR CADENCE DATASHEET

Introduction: The movement of VLSI chips to nanometer process geometries resulted: to the domination of interconnect delays in total delay increased sensitivity to variations in power supply New Challenges for the delay calculators : can’t model the wires as single lumped effective capacitance can’t use linear approximation techniques for IR Drop and ground bounce CAD tools need to develop new algorithms for nanometer delay modeling Signalstorm is a popular tool for performing timing characterizations for standard cell libraries.

Why Do We Need New Solution for Delay Prediction Multilevel design methodologies allow great variation in power supply voltage tools must model this variation in a nonlinear fashion Modeling input pin capacitance was inaccurate because it is based on fixed values rather than dynamic values Modeling dynamic current and capacitance characteristics should take into account of nonlinear IR Drop and wire loading effects. Inadequate delay calculations lead design failures, and lack of competitiveness in the market because we might lose the advantages of nanometer technology.

What Are Essential Capabilities for NDC? Estimating C eff Gate Delay = f( T in, C load ) Gate Delay = f( T in, C load, R pi, C 2 ) Requires 4-D table to achieve high accuracy Single C value that can be replaced instead of RC-Pi load

What Are Essential Capabilities for NDC? Time–quantized Model of C eff Traditional tool use single values for C eff which results in up to 20% inaccurate slew values SignalStorm apply dynamic relationship between voltage, current and load capacitance to calculate slew and delay. SignalStorm computes over several time steps during signal ramp to more closely track the actual effective capacitance as it changes with signal voltage. Gate Delay = f( T in, C load )

What Are Essential Capabilities for NDC? Variable Source Current Modeling with ECMs Nonlinear current source fitting Input slew & output load dependence Accurate calculations at multiple driver cells, clock meshes, long interconnects, modeling RC drop effects Most efficient current modeling because it can represent complex topologies more accurately

What Are Essential Capabilities for NDC? IR Drop and Ground Bounce Effects on Timing at 130 nm IR Drop –Describes the voltage drops caused by current flowing from power source through a resistive power network to the on-chip devices. Ground Bounce –Describes voltage spikes caused by current flowing from on-chip devices through a resistive ground network to the ground pins IR Drop and Ground Bounce impact silicon performance –Increased clock skew hold time violations –Increased signal skew setup time violations

Change In Delay With IR is Nonlinear

SignalStorm NDC In The Design Flow

Synopsis Primetime (Brendan) Stand-alone full chip, gate-level static timing analyzer. It analyzes the timing of large, synchronous, digital ASICs. Pre-layout static timing analysis

Static Timing Analysis Setup and hold checks Recovery and removal checks Clock pulse width checks Clock gating checks

Design Analysis Unclocked registers Unconstrained timing endpoints Master-slave clock separation Multiple clocked registers Level-sensitive clocking Combinational feedback loops Design rule checks (maximum capacitance, maximum transition time, and maximum fanout)

Inputs -> Outputs Design file –Synopsys database files (.db) –Verilog netlist files –Electronic Data Interchange Format (EDIF) netlist files –VHDL netlist files Set up the operating conditions, wireload models, port load, drive, and transition time. Define the clock period, waveform, uncertainty, and latency. Specify the input and output port delays. Set multicycle paths. Set false paths. Specify minimum and maximum delays, path segmentation, and disabled arcs. % flip-flops with violations setup and hold violations timing paths rising edge input timing and falling edge input timing of all paths in the design critical path for each clock group timing report for each clock group electrical design rule violations

Benefits Tight integration with other Synopsis tools Standalone (lower memory usage than Design Compiler, better performance) Primetime SI – cross talk aware analysis

Alternatives Dataquest (2004): Synopsis holds 93% of STA market share ViewLogic Motive –Bought by Synopsis Spice –More for validation Cadence Pearl Mentor Graphics SST Velocity

Further Information PrimeTime Tutorial: 1. Introduction to PrimeTime and the TutorialPrimeTime Tutorial: 1. Introduction to PrimeTime and the Tutorial Primetime Tutorial Have I Really Met Timing? - Validating PrimeTime Timing Reports with SpiceHave I Really Met Timing? - Validating PrimeTime Timing Reports with Spice Tobias Thiel Proceedings of the Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition Designers’ Forum (DATE’04)

Statistical Timing Analysis for Intra-Die Process Variations with Spatial Correlations Aseem Agarwal, David Blaauw, *Vladimir Zolotov University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI *Motorola, Inc., Austin, TX

Inter-die & Intra die variablilty Gate length variability Intra-die variations –Random variations (no dependence on location) –Spatially correlated variations

Process variation model Ignoring all spatial correlations Gate length variations small with 3σ values of less that 15% of L nom The change in gate delay is linear with the change in gate length.

Correlations Reconvergence of circuit paths –Arrival time of nodes B and C are both dependent on the arrival time at node A –Can be ignored. Gives the upper bound. For proof see: A. Agarwal et al “Computation and Refinement of Statistical Bounds on Circuit Delay” DAC 2003 Spatial correlation –Between gate delay and arrival times (complicates the propagation) –Between gate delays (complicates the merging of arrival times) –Ignoring does not give the upper bound. WHY? Spatial correlation makes the intra-die variability more similar to that of inter-die variability, which increases the delay of circuit paths.

Modeling spatial correlation Divide the die into 2 l x 2 l squares random variable associated with each region (l,r)

Modeling spatial correlation one of random variables in the model : for random variable associated with the gate based on its position in the die. For all other

σTA Method: Propagation Arrival times propagated from input to output of gates. Add gate delay and input arrival time to get output arrival time.

σTA Method: Merging a1, a2 arrival times both in the sum of components form. max(a1,a2) → –Expensive: requires enumeration of the random variables L i –Inaccurate: result does not preserve the spatial information for further propagation. GOAL: generate an output arrival time that is efficient and whose CDF is an upper bound on the exact arrival time.

σTA Method: Merging

INCREMENTAL TIMING ANALYSIS Patent Number: 5,508,937 Abato et al. Date of Patent: Apr. 16, 1996 Presented by Cesare

INCREMENTAL TIMING ANALYSIS: STA vs. ITA STA (static timing analysis) naïve approach: –For each node of the circuit, calculate its couple. Observation: what happens if some circuit parameter changes? STA: NO PROBLEM  Re-calculate the entire list of nodes (very inefficient solution..) Better Approach: Incremental timing analysis

INCREMENTAL TIMING ANALYSIS: Overview Circuit as a set of sub- circuits Each sub circuit is delimited by leftmost nodes, and rightmost nodes What happens if we increment by 1 the rise/fall time of gate G1 ?  The Arrival time for node Y changes  Re-calculate the STA? 2/4 3/4 2/4 A C B Sub Circuit_i Leftmost nodes: A,B,C Rightmost nodes: X,Y X Y W1 W2 W3 W4 Arrival Time Required Time G1

INCREMENTAL TIMING ANALYSIS – Algorithm  Basic Idea:  Subdivide the circuit in N sub-regions  Define the frontier of change nodes (rightmost and leftmost nodes).  Store the frontiers of change are stored into two separate lists (Arrival queue – Required Queue).  Order the lists according to the the sub-circuit level number  If a node changes its timing propriety, discard the delay table of the respective sub-region  DO NOT compute the STA for the sub-region until explicitly requested.

INCREMENTAL TIMING ANALYSIS: Notes The frontiers of change move as recalculation progresses. The algorithm works recursively. Ordered lists  for a fixed level, we can avoid to consider nodes with higher level. It is not needed to calculate the sub circuit STA every time a node changes!!

INCREMENTAL TIMING ANALYSIS ANY Questions?? E N D