Amber Static Performance Analysis Tool Suite
The Amber™ Analyzer is an integrated suite of static analysis tools for high- performance, cell-based designs. Amber is being used in production on some of the largest and most advanced circuits in design today, ranging from 10m to well over 40m instances.
Amber STA and Amber SI analyze static timing and signal respectively. Amber FX adds a high accuracy transistor model (FXM) to provide near SPICE accuracy for timing analysis. Amber FX SSTA is a path based statistical timing analyzer that enables users to analyze both delay and variance within 2% of SPICE.
The Amber Analyzer combines 4x - 8x throughput improvement over current tools, dynamic memory scaling for capacity, with the ability to consider multiple factors or corners simultaneously (timing, leakage, statistical variance, signal integrity), and advanced analysis and debug capabilities. Users can analyze bigger circuits faster and more completely, and then isolate problems to make trade-offs and trial solutions in a fraction of the time it takes today.
The Amber Analyzer lets users begin with what they know, and incorporate advanced capabilities incrementally. Amber is compatible with users’ existing flows.
The Amber Analyzer addresses known limitations in the current static analysis flow:
- Speed: 4x or more faster than current tools for timing and signal integrity. The first tool to support threaded static analysis, including signal integrity. Performance scales linearly with the number of CPUs.
- Capacity: Amber uses dynamic memory scaling to facilitate full chip timing of the largest circuits in design today. 10m instance designs can be analyzed in less than 10GB, while 40m instance designs can be analyzed in under 32GB.
- Accurate Incremental: 100x more throughput with “accurate” incremental capability. Allows users to make complex circuit changes from block level hierarchy, to cell swap-outs, to logic changes, and then incrementally calculate timing and signal integrity results. Most importantly, it gives exactly the same answer as if the entire design had been re-run. Conventional tools claim incremental capability but provide incorrect results and radically limit the type of circuit changes that can be made.
- Multi-corner/multi-mode: Simultaneous evaluation in one pass of multiple corners-statistical sweeps and modes (PTV across sleep, low power, active…).
- Accuracy: The fast transistor model, FMX, delivers near SPICE accuracy with fully threaded performance.
- Process Variance (statistical): FX SSTA delivers transistor accuracy for delay and sigma (variance) for path based timing analysis.
- PrimeTime Compatibility: Base timing analyses are within one percent of PrimeTime results when run with similar options and constraints. The base timing analysis includes capacitance analysis with cap to ground. The Amber Analyzer is compatible with respect to existing scripts and flows.
- SI Pessimism Reduction: Eliminates overly pessimistic cases in signal integrity analysis without compromising the safeness of the answer through use of multiple heuristics.
- Analysis and De-bug from Desktop: New features enable debug and isolation of timing problems. These include design of experiments, what-if and what’s next analysis, multi-corner/mode/experiment analysis, diagnostics, and statistical views. Users can debug and analyze designs from their desktop computers, automatically invoking servers for larger analyses.
In addition, the Amber Analyzer provides the following innovations:
- Threaded Processing: All tasks, including signal integrity, can take advantage of multiple CPUs on a single server. Performance improves nearly linearly with the number of CPUs.
- Incremental: Design changes can be made on any dimension (cell swaps, logic, R/C network). Only changes will be evaluated, but the results will be the same as if the entire design had been run. Because changes can be run on one or multiple processors, the result is very fast turnaround in most cases.
- Dynamic Memory Scaling: Amber has advanced memory management capability that allows very large circuits to be fit into very small memory footprints. Users can adjust the memory consumption to fit the capacity of the system.
- Local Temperature and Voltage: In addition to global temperature and voltage corners, users can set specific paths or regions to alternate temperature (i.e., a hotspot) and voltage values (IR drop).
- Open API: Run as an engine from other tools or scripts through an API layer with access to all capabilities (including incremental processing).
For additional information, please contact: sales@clkda.com, 978.486.1056 ext. 201
CLK Design Automation, Inc.
295 Foster Street
Littleton, MA 01451
www.clkda.com
Amber is trademark of CLK Design Automation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
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