In the dynamic world of VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration), the demand for innovative products is higher than ever. The journey from a concept to a fully functional product involves many challenges and uncertainties where design verification plays a critical role in ensuring the functionality and reliability of complex electronic systems by confirming that the design meets its intended requirements and specifications. In 2023, the global VLSI market is expected to be worth USD 662.2 billion, according to Research and Markets. According to market analysts, it will be worth USD 971.71 billion in 2028, increasing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8%.

In this article, we will explore the concept of design verification, its importance, the process involved, the languages and methodologies used, and the future prospects of this critical phase in the development of VLSI design.

What is design verification and its importance?

Design verification is a systematic process that validates and confirms that a design meets its specified requirements and sticking to design guidelines. It is a vital step in the product development cycle, aiming to identify and rectify design issues early on to avoid costly and time-consuming rework during later stages of development. Design verification ensures that the final product, whether it is an integrated circuit (IC), a system-on-chip (SoC), or any electronic system, functions correctly and reliably. SoC and ASIC verification play a key role in achieving reliable and high-performance integrated circuits.

VLSI design verification involves two types of verification.

• Functional verification
• Static Timing Analysis

These verification steps are crucial and need to be performed as the design advances through its various stages, ensuring that the final product meets the intended requirements and maintains high quality.

Functional verification: It is a pivotal stage in VLSI design aimed at ensuring the correct functionality of chip used under various operating conditions. It involves testing the design to verify whether it behaves according to its intended specifications and functional requirements. This verification phase is essential because VLSI designs are becoming increasingly complex, and human errors or design flaws are bound to occur during the development process. The process of functional verification in VLSI design is as follow.

• Identification and preparation: At this stage, the design requirements are identified, and a verification plan is prepared. The plan outlines the goals, objectives, and strategies for the subsequent verification steps.
• Planning: Once the verification plan is ready, the planning stage involves resource allocation, setting up the test environment, and creating test cases and test benches.
• Developing: The developing stage focuses on coding the test benches and test cases using appropriate languages and methodologies. This stage also includes building and integrating simulation and emulation environments to facilitate thorough testing.
• Execution: In the execution stage, the test cases are run on the design to validate its functionality and performance. This often involves extensive simulations and emulators to cover all possible scenarios.
• Reports: Finally, the verification process concludes with the generation of detailed reports, including bug reports, coverage statistics, and an overall verification status. These reports help in identifying areas that need improvement and provide valuable insights for future design iterations.

Static Timing Analysis (STA): Static Timing Analysis is another crucial step in VLSI design that focuses on validating the timing requirements of the design. In VLSI designs, timing is crucial because it determines how signals propagate through the chip and affects the overall performance and functionality of the integrated circuit. The process is used to determine the worst-case and best-case signal propagation delays in the design. It analyzes the timing paths from the source (input) to the destination (output) and ensures that the signals reach their intended destinations within the required clock cycle without violating any timing constraints. During STA, the design is divided into time paths so that timing analysis can be performed. Each time path is composed of the following factors.

• Startpoint: The startpoint of a timing route is where data is launched by a clock edge or is required to be ready at a specific time. A register clock pin or an input port must be present at each startpoint.
• Combinational Logic Network: It contains parts that don’t have internal memory. Combinational logic can use AND, OR, XOR, and inverter elements but not flip-flops, latched, registers, or RAM.
• Endpoint: This is where a timing path ends when data is caught by a clock edge or when it must be provided at a specific time. At each endpoint, there must be an output port or a pin for register data input.

Languages and methodologies used in design verification

Design verification employs various languages and methodologies to effectively test and validate VLSI designs.

• SystemVerilog (SV) verification: SV provides an extensive set of verification features, including object-oriented programming, constrained random testing, and functional coverage.
• Universal Verification Methodology (UVM): UVM is a standardized methodology built on top of SystemVerilog that enables scalable and reusable verification environments, promoting design verification efficiency and flexibility.
• VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Descriptive Language): VHDL is widely used for design entry and verification in the VLSI industry, offering strong support for hardware modelling, simulation, and synthesis.
• e (Specman): e is a verification language developed by Yoav Hollander for his Specman software that offers powerful verification capabilities, such as constraint-driven random testing and transaction-level modelling. Later it was renamed as Verisity which was acquired by Cadence Design Systems.
• C/C++ and Python: These programming languages are often used for building verification frameworks, test benches, and script-based verification flows.

VLSI design verification languages and methodologies

Advantages of design verification
Effective design verification offers numerous advantages to the VLSI industry.

• It reduces time-to-market for VLSI products
• The process ensures compliance with design specifications
• It enhances design resilience to uncertainties
• Verification minimizes the risks associated with design failures

The Future of design verification
The future of design verification looks promising. New methodologies with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning assisted verification is emerging to address verification challenges effectively. The adoption of advanced verification tools and methodologies will play a significant role in improving the verification process’s efficiency, effectiveness, and coverage. Moreover, with the growth of SoC, ASIC, and low power designs, the demand for specialized VLSI verification will continue to rise.

Design verification is an integral part of the product development process, ensuring reliability, functionality, and performance. Employing various languages, methodologies, and techniques, design verification addresses the challenges posed by complex designs and emerging technologies. As the technology landscape evolves, design verification will continue to play a vital role in delivering innovative and reliable products to meet the demands of the ever-changing world.

Softnautics, a MosChip Company offers a complete range of semiconductor design and verification services, catering to every stage of ASIC/FPGA/SoC development, from initial concept to final deployment. Our highly skilled VLSI team has the capability to design, develop, test, and verify customer solutions involving a wide range of silicon platforms, tools and technology. Softnautics also has technology partnerships with leading semiconductor giants like Xilinx, Lattice Semiconductor and Microchip.

Read our success stories related to VLSI design and verification services to know more about our expertise in the domain.

Contact us at business@softnautics.com for any queries related to your solution design or for consultancy.

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In recent years, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have emerged as a viable technology for High-Performance Computing (HPC), thanks to their customizability, parallel processing, and low latency. High-Performance Computing (HPC) is a field of computing that involves the use of advanced hardware and software resources to perform complex calculations and data processing tasks at significantly higher speeds and larger scales than conventional computing systems. HPC is designed to solve computationally intensive problems and analyze massive datasets in the shortest possible time. It involves using advanced computing technologies, including software development, to perform complicated tasks that require massive processing power. These tasks include scientific simulations, data analytics, and machine learning. HPC plays a critical role in various industries, such as finance, healthcare, and oil and gas exploration. Industry reports predict that the FPGA market is expected to increase from USD 9.7 billion in 2023 to USD 19.1 billion by 2028. This is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.6%.

A brief history of FPGA and its relevance to High-Performance Computing
Around the 1980s, computer designs became standardized, making it difficult for smaller companies to compete with the major players. However, in 1984, Xilinx introduced the first FPGA. This created an emerging market, allowing smaller companies to produce chips previously impossible. FPGAs are semiconductor devices that can be reprogrammed after manufacturing. This allows users to configure digital logic circuits and create custom hardware accelerators for specific applications, a process known as FPGA design. Initially, FPGAs were mainly used in niche applications due to their limited capacity compared to Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Over the years, FPGAs have undergone significant advancements in terms of capacity, speed, and efficiency. This has made them increasingly relevant in various industries, including High-Performance Computing (HPC). Their reconfigurability and parallel processing capabilities make them ideal for computationally intensive tasks commonly found in HPC environments. FPGAs can be seamlessly integrated into existing HPC infrastructures, complementing traditional CPU-based clusters and GPU-based systems. By offloading specific tasks to FPGAs, HPC systems can achieve higher performance, lower power consumption, and improved efficiency.

Advantages of FPGAs in High-Performance Computing

Increased performance: FPGAs can significantly enhance performance by offloading compute-intensive tasks from traditional processors. They provide parallel processing capabilities that can execute complex algorithms at blazing speeds, surpassing the performance of conventional CPUs.
Energy efficient: FPGAs offer remarkable energy efficiency compared to CPUs or GPUs. Unlike CPUs and GPUs, which are designed to be general purpose processors capable of running a wide range of application, FPGAs can be programmed to implement specific functions or algorithms directly in hardware. This means that FPGAs can be optimized for specific tasks and can perform those tasks with much higher efficiency than general-purpose processors.
Reduced latency: FPGAs can drastically reduce data processing latency by eliminating data transfer between different components. By leveraging FPGA acceleration and executing tasks directly on FPGA hardware, latency is minimized, enabling real-time processing of time-sensitive applications.

Advantages of FPGAs in HPC

Use cases for FPGAs in High-Performance Computing
The deployment of FPGAs in these diverse HPC applications underscores their adaptability and versatility. As FPGA technology continues to advance, its relevance in HPC is expected to grow further, empowering researchers and industries to tackle complex challenges and drive innovation in various domains.

Machine learning and AI: FPGAs are now useful tools for designing applications based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Because FPGAs can manage complex calculations in parallel, they can run neural network models faster and effectively. High-performance computing systems can execute machine learning models faster and with less energy usage by delegating some tasks to FPGAs. This makes FPGAs ideal for real applications. FPGAs makes it possible to process massive amounts of data quickly which facilitates the efficient operation of various AI applications.

Financial modelling: Real-time data analysis, risk analysis, and algorithmic trading necessitates high-speed processing power in the fast-paced world of finance. FPGAs enable traders and financial analysts to execute financial models and simulations with low latency, resulting in quicker and more accurate decision-making. High-frequency trading environments, where every microsecond counts, benefit from the FPGA capacity to handle concurrent data streams and sophisticated computations counts.

Video and image processing: From surveillance systems to medical imaging to multimedia and entertainment, the effective processing of visual data is essential in a variety of applications. The parallel architecture of FPGAs makes them excellent at processing images and video. The FPGA-based acceleration of real-time video analytics, object detection, image recognition, and computer vision algorithms enable quick analysis and decision-making in urgent situations.

The Future of FPGAs in High-Performance Computing
FPGAs have the potential to transform HPC by effectively handling big data, improving machine learning, advancing scientific research, and boosting the performance of AI applications. Addressing challenges related to standardization and skill requirements will be crucial to unlocking the full potential of FPGAs in HPC and realizing their impact on various industrial domains. Additionally, FPGAs offer significant enhancements for artificial intelligence applications, which are increasingly integral to many HPC use cases. The ability to accelerate AI inference tasks, such as real-time image analysis, natural language understanding, and decision-making, is critical in fields like autonomous vehicles, medical diagnostics, and robotics.

In conclusion, FPGAs have made significant progress over the past few years and are increasingly being considered for use in HPC applications as they can be reprogrammed to carry out particular tasks. Traditional CPUs and GPUs struggle to match the flexibility and performance of FPGAs. FPGAs appear to have a bright future in high-performance computing overall. FPGAs are likely to become a more significant component of the HPC landscape as they grow in strength, efficiency, and programming ease.

Softnautics, a MosChip company offers the best design practices and the right selection of technology stacks to provide secure FPGA design, software development, and embedded system services. We help businesses in building next-gen high-performance systems/solutions/products with semiconductor services like platform enablement, firmware & driver development, OS porting & bootloader optimization, middleware integration, and more across various platforms.

Read our success stories related to FPGA/VLSI design services to know more about our expertise in the domain.

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The development of VLSI technology has opened up new possibilities in the field of microelectronics. The landscape of electronic systems has been fundamentally changed by VLSI technology, which can combine millions of transistors onto a single chip. This ground-breaking innovation has produced extremely advanced and effective electronic devices that are incredibly powerful and small. Research and Markets estimates that the global VLSI market will be worth USD 662.2 billion in 2023. Market analysts predict that it will be worth USD 971.71 billion in 2028, growing at an 8% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

Several factors have influenced the evolution of VLSI technology, including advances in semiconductor materials and manufacturing processes, the development of computer-aided design (CAD) tools, and the growing demand for high-performance electronic systems which includes VLSI design and verification processes. In this article, we will explore the evolution of VLSI technology and its application in the modern world

Evolution of VLSI technology

The inception of VLSI technology can be traced back to the 1970s when the first microprocessor was introduced. A milestone that showcased the potential of VLSI design and integrating multiple transistors on a single chip. This breakthrough marked the beginning of a new era in microelectronics

A single chip can hold an ever-increasing number of transistors thanks to VLSI technology. The creation of transistors with smaller dimensions and better performance characteristics has been made possible by the development of semiconductor materials and manufacturing techniques. These advancements in VLSI design has caused an ongoing rise in integration density, allowing for the creation of extremely sophisticated and complex electronic systems. As the number of transistors integrated on a chip increases, the processing power of electronic systems also improves significantly. With more transistors available, complex computations can be executed at a faster rate, enabling high-performance computing. As a result, disciplines like artificial intelligence and machine learning, data analytics, and scientific simulations have advanced significantly

Applications of VLSI technology

VLSI technology has diverse application in various industries and sectors. Here are some key areas where VLSI plays a significant role

• Consumer Electronics: VLSI technology has transformed the consumer electronics industry, enabling the development of smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and smartwatches. These devices offer advanced functionalities, high-speed processing, and energy efficiency, enhancing user experiences and productivity
• Automotive Industry: In the automotive sector, VLSI technology has revolutionized vehicle functionality and safety. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), infotainment systems, and Engine Control Units (ECUs) utilize VLSI chips to enable features such as autonomous driving, object/lane/signal detection, and real-time vehicle diagnostics
• Telecommunications: VLSI technology has played a vital role in the telecommunications industry. It has facilitated the development of high-speed network infrastructure, 5G wireless communication, and advanced mobile devices. VLSI-based chips are used in routers, modems, base stations, and network switches to enable fast and reliable data transmission
• Healthcare: VLSI technology has had a significant impact on healthcare, enabling the development of medical imaging devices, wearable health monitors, and implantable medical devices. These devices provide accurate diagnostics, real-time monitoring, and improved patient care

Applications of VLSI technology

Advantages of VLSI technology

• Compact size: VLSI circuits are much smaller than traditional circuits, enabling the development of compact electronic systems, thus making miniaturization possible
• Lower power consumption: VLSI circuits consume less power compared to traditional circuits, making them more energy efficient. This is particularly relevant in applications where battery life is a critical factor, such as mobile devices
• Higher performance: By integrating a large number of transistors on a single chip, VLSI circuits can perform complex operations at extremely fast speeds. This enables the development of high-performance electronic systems such as supercomputers, datacenters, edge computing, etc.
• Mass production: VLSI technology has enabled the mass production of complex electronic systems. With the integration of multiple functions and components on one chip, by this reliability has improved. This, in turn, has made electronic systems more affordable and accessible to a wider range of users, promoting widespread adoption and innovation

Future of VLSI technology

VLSI technology’s future holds both opportunities and challenges. The need for evolving design methodologies that can handle the growing complexity of electronic systems is one of the challenges. Another difficulty is the growing need for energy-efficient systems, which necessitates the creation of fresh power management strategies

On the other hand, VLSI technology’s future presents several opportunities. VLSI technology has the potential to enable new applications and products, such as brain-machine interfaces and quantum computing. The increasing demand for high-performance electronic systems in various industries also presents opportunities for the development of new and innovative products and services

The development of VLSI technology has been fuelled by improvements in semiconductor materials, manufacturing techniques, and the rising demand for high-performance electronic systems. Applications in consumer electronics, automotive, telecommunications, healthcare, aerospace, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are just a few of the many domains where it is prevalent. As VLSI technology continues to advance, we can expect further innovations and breakthroughs that will shape the future of electronics and technology-driven industries

Softnautics offers a complete range of semiconductor design and verification services, catering to every stage of ASIC/FPGA/SoC development, from initial concept to final deployment. Our highly skilled VLSI team has the capability to design, develop, test, and verify customer solutions involving wide range of silicon platforms, tools and technology. Softnautics also have technology partnerships with leading semiconductor giants like Xilinx, Lattice Semiconductor and Microchip

Read our success stories related to VLSI design and verification services to know more about our expertise in the domain.

Contact us at business@softnautics.com for any queries related to your solution design or for consultancy.

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Designing a chip is a complex and multi-step process that encompasses various stages, right from initial system specifications to manufacturing. Each step is crucial to achieving the ultimate objective of developing a fully functional chip. In this article, we will provide a brief overview of the chip design flow, its different stages and how they contribute to creating an effective chip. The stages include system specifications, architectural design, functional design, logic design, circuit design, physical design verification, and manufacturing.

The first step in any new development is to decide what kind of device/product will be designed, whether it is an integrated circuit (IC), ASIC, FPGA, SoC, etc. For example, if you want something small but powerful enough for high-speed applications such as telecommunications or networking equipment; then your best option would probably be an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). If you’re looking for something more flexible so that it can perform multiple tasks without much overhead; then maybe an FPGA would work better. Once this is decided, then the specifications can be defined.

Concept of chip design

A chip is a small electronic device that is programmed to perform a specific function. These devices are used in various applications, including computers and cell phones. VLSI technology has revolutionized the electronics industry by enabling designers to integrate millions or even billions of transistors onto a single chip. This has led to the development of powerful processors, memory devices, and other advanced electronic systems.

Chips are designed using different types of technology depending on their application requirements. Let us look into the flow of the entire chip design process.

System specification and architectural design
The first step in the chip design flow is to define the requirements and specifications of the chip. This includes defining what your product will do, how it will be used, and what performance metrics you need to meet. Once these requirements are defined, they can be used as input into designing your architecture and layout.

The next step in chip design after establishing the requirements is to create an architecture that meets them while keeping costs and power consumption to a minimum, among other considerations. During the initial phase of chip design, designers make crucial decisions about the architecture, such as choosing between RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) or CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer), determining the number of ALUs (Arithmetic Logic Units) required, deciding on the structure and number of pipelines, selecting cache size, and other factors. These choices form the foundation of the rest of the design process, so it is vital that designers carefully evaluate each aspect and consider how it will impact the chip’s overall efficiency and performance. These decisions are based on the chip’s intended use and defined requirements, with the ultimate goal of creating a design that is efficient and effective while minimizing power consumption and costs. After completing the architectural design phase, designers create a Micro-Architectural Specification (MAS), which is a written description of the chip’s architecture. This specification allows designers to accurately predict the design’s performance, power consumption, and die size. By creating a comprehensive MAS, designers can ensure that the chip meets the requirements and specifications established during the initial design phase. A thorough MAS is critical to avoid errors later in the process and to ensure that the chip design meets the required performance standards and timelines. This may involve choosing between different processor types or FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays).

Chip Design Flow

Functional design
Next in the process is functional design. It involves defining the functionality and behavior of the chip. This includes creating a high-level description of the system’s requirements and designing the algorithms and data flow needed to meet those requirements. The goal of this stage is to create a functional specification that can be used as a blueprint for the rest of the design process.

Logic design
This step involves the creation of the digital logic circuits required to implement the functionality defined in the functional design stage. This stage includes creating a logical design using a hardware description language (HDL) and verifying the design’s correctness using simulations.

Circuit design
This stage involves designing the physical circuitry of the chip, including the selection of transistors, resistors, capacitors, and other components. The circuit design stage also involves designing the power supply and clock distribution networks for the chip.

Physical design verification
Physical design verification is the process of checking the physical layout of a chip. This involves identifying any design issues and ensuring that the chip will be manufactured correctly. In this step, design of integrated circuit layout is verified via EDA software tools like logic simulators, logic analyzers, etc. and various techniques such as Design Rule Check (DRC), Layout versus Schematic (LVS), and timing and power analysis to ensure correct electrical and logical functionality and manufacturability.

Verification and validation
Once you have completed the design of your chip, it is time to test it. This is called verification and validation (V&V). V&V involves testing the chip using various emulation and simulation platforms to ensure that it meets all the requirements and functions correctly. If there are any errors in the design, it will show up during this stage of development. Validation also helps identify the functional correctness of few initially manufactured prototypes.

At last is the fabrication of physical layout design. After the chip is designed and verified, a .GDS file is sent to foundry for fabrication.

Each stage of the chip design flow is critical to creating a successful and functional chip. By understanding the requirements of each stage, chip designers can create efficient, reliable, and cost-effective designs that meet the need of their customers across various industrial domains.

Future of chip design
The future of chip design is exciting and rapidly evolving, as technology advances. Next-gen chipsets enable new-age solutions by offering higher performance, lower power consumption, and increased functionality. These advancements drive innovation across many industries. One example of next-gen chipsets enabling new-age solutions is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications. AI and ML require significant computational power, which is possible with advanced chipsets. These technologies are used to create autonomous vehicles, personalized healthcare solutions, and advanced robotics, among others.

Another area where next-gen chipsets are making a significant impact is the Internet of Things (IoT) space. The proliferation of connected devices requires powerful, energy-efficient, and cost-effective chipsets to enable communication and data processing across a wide range of devices. Next-gen chipsets are also driving advancements in 5G networks, which are expected to deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity and unlock new possibilities in areas such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and remote surgery.

The future of chip design is bright, and next-gen chipsets will enable more innovative solutions across many industries. As technology evolves, we can expect even more exciting developments in chip design and the solutions they enable.

To summarize, the chip design process is a complex one that involves many steps and stages. The impact of this on the industry is significant. There are many different types of chips in use today. With new technologies being developed all the time, there will always be room for improvement in terms of how we build these chipsets.

At Softnautics, with our semiconductor engineering services, we help silicon manufacturers in the chip design at any given stage by following best practices. We empower businesses with exceptional ASIC/FPGA platforms, tailored products and solutions, and highly optimized embedded systems. Our core competencies include RTL front-end design and integration, micro-architecture design, synthesis and optimization, IP/SoC level verification and pre/post validation. We also provide VLSI IPs for security, USB, and encryption.

Read our success stories related to the semiconductor industry to know more about our high-performance silicon services.

Contact us at business@softnautics.com for any queries related to your solution design or for consultancy.

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Minimizing power consumption is a major factor that contributes to the modern-day development of IC designs, especially in the consumer electronics segment. The heating of the devices, the time it takes to turn on/off the features of handheld devices, battery life, etc are still under reforms. Hence it becomes important that best practices of chip design are adopted to aid the power consumption in SoCs (System on Chip) and other ICs (Integrated Circuit). According to market Research Future, the global System-on-Chip market was valued at USD 131.83 billion in 2021, and it is predicted to reach USD 214.8 Billion by the end of 2030, with a CAGR of 8.30 % from 2021 to 2030. The performance of the Silicon is greatly influenced by power management for SoCs and RTL designs. To attain power statistics, industries utilize power-aware designs. This blog’s focus is on multi-Voltage design terminology that can be used in HDL coding to determine silicon’s power performance. These aid in comprehending the design parameters when putting into practice power-conscious designs.

Multiple Voltage Design (Multi Voltage Power Domain) Method

Power supply has a direct relationship with dynamic power which consists of switching & short-circuit power. Therefore, reducing power naturally enhances power performance. The decreased threshold voltage causes an increase in gate delay. Lowering the voltage of SoC blocks is perhaps, the first design implementation that is used to meet power performance goals. In Figure 1 the system shows different voltage levels.

Figure 1

Lowering the voltage, lowers the current flowing and increases the delay in the gates, and by that means, the designs may not be able to run at desired clock frequencies. Lowering the voltage may cost the performance statistics but the performance can still be met as seen in Figure 1. Here the VLSI chip performance is achieved by lowering individual voltages of different modules.
Figure 1 can also be referred to as a multi-VDD design. The logic is partitioned into different domains called power domains. The structural model or a gate-level netlist derived from behavioural Verilog uses a different voltage line for each domain. The individual domains can be run as per performance objectives. Figure 2 shows an elaboration of the same.

Figure 2

The power intent derived using the IEEE standard 1801-2018 Unified Power Format UPF 3.1 is used by many companies to define the power parameters of a chip. The power architect makes use of this technology to create files that describe the power and power control intent of an electric design. Supply sets, power switches, level shifters, and memory retention techniques are all included in the annotation. Power states, transitions, a collection of sim states, the pg (power/ground pin) type and function properties of nets, and the -update parameter to assist the gradual refinement of the power intent are all definable descriptions of the potential power applied to the electronic system.

Requirements to create a multi-voltage design

Level shifters
As shown in figure 3. level shifters will shift the level of voltages to ensure different modules operating at different voltages will operate correctly when LS (Level shifter) circuits are attached. The circuits are implemented in HDL, and they can also be made to implement the drive strength. The figure shows a low to high voltage level shifter (A) and a high to low voltage level shifter (B). Vi and Vo are the sources and destinations of different voltage levels in different modules.

Clock Gating
This method is referred to as turning off the clock transitions when the circuit does not encounter switching of internal signals when there is no activity to be performed. This help controls the frequency of transitions from the power equation. Almost all EDA tools identify and support this.

The complexity of SoCs has expanded, introducing new demands for power management. The supply of the various SoC power domains must be flexible enough to be controlled by developers to control power dissipation and improve battery autonomy. Careful power analysis and knowledge of the capabilities of the tools at hand are prerequisites for selecting the best solutions. Power-related crises can be prevented by analysing power demand as early as possible in the design flow. Power goals are also made simpler to achieve by early analysis because higher-level techniques save the most power.

At Softnautics, we provide comprehensive semiconductor design and verification services including end-to-end ASIC/FPGA/SoC design from idea to realization to deployment. Our RTL design team can create power intent at module-system as well as chip level to meet power statistics of a predefined specification. We also have VLSI design & verification teams to validate the same power intent using static or dynamic verification.

Read our success stories related to VLSI Design Services to know more about our high-performance silicon services.

Contact us at business@softnautics.com for any queries related to your solution or for consultancy.

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