Power integrity software provides full chip analysis

Believed to be the first electromigration/voltage drop (EM/IR) tool for both analogue and digital methodologies, mPower has been released by Siemens Digital Industries. The tool marks Siemens’ entry into the IC power analysis market, capable of power integrity analysis for analogue, digital and mixed-signal IC designs. It is also scalable and uses industry standard inputs and interfaces.

Power integrity analysis can be performed on all versions of 2D designs, and to 2.5/3D IC implementations at any scale, explained Joseph Davis, senior director of product management for Calibre interfaces and mPower power integrity analysis tools, Siemens Digital Industries Software. It also integrates into existing design flows by virtual of industry standard inputs and interfaces. It is the first time that full analogue chip analysis has been available, he continued, and can fit into the analogue design flow without the designer having to adapt methodologies that are common in digital design flows. Typically the analogue ICs have to convert physical data such as sound, motion and video into digital form but mPower replaces rough static analysis and SPICE simulation of select nets to deliver simulation-based EM/IR analysis on the block or full chip, regardless of size.

Siemens reports that early adopters have halved overall runtime improvements compared to existing verification tools and have even reported to have completed first-pass EM/IR analysis of large analogue IP blocks, which was previously impossible. Being able to thoroughly verify that chips meet their power design goals can dramatically boost quality, enhance reliability and accelerate time to market, said Siemens.

The digital mPower scalable EM/IR engines can also be used for analysis for all-digital IC designs and integrates into existing design flows to provide power analysis functionality while consuming low per-machine memory to verify digital designs. According to Davis, the software is scalable for “practically any scale”.

It is designed for heterogeneous growth across all domains, using the local cloud or grid; designers can scale data to a GUI for hardware resources, utilisation and deployment, Davis explained.

The software has already allowed MaxLinear to assess EM/IR during tapeout of analogue circuits while AI compute specialist, Esperanto has used it to perform full chip EM/IR analysis on a 1,000+ core 64-bit RISC-V AI chip.

mPower is available now as part of the company’s electro-physical signoff suite, which includes Calibre PERC reliability software, PowerPro, HyperLynx software, and Analog FastSPICE.

Siemens’ mPower power integrity analysis solution for analog, digital and mixed-signal IC designs is available now.

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