11/9/2011

SOC 10EC129
M.Tech LVS 1st semester Faculty Elumalai.R

Beyond CMOS scaling

Moores Law
Predicts doubling of circuit density every 1.5 to 2 years.

Engineering Productivity Gap

Engineering productivity has not been keeping up with silicon gate capacity for several years. Companies have been using larger design teams, making engineers work longer hours, etc., but clearly the limit is being reached.

Motivation for SOC Design What is driving the industry to develop the SOC design methodology? Higher productivity levels Lower overall cost Lower overall power Smaller form factor Higher integration levels Rapid development of derivative designs

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What is SOC? System-on-Chip An IC that integrates the major functional elements of a complete end-product into a single chip. usually contains reusable IP that are pre-designed modules. embedded processor, memory, ASIC blocks real-world interface mixed-signal blocks programmable hardware Has more than 1000 K gates, Use nm technology and is not an ASIC.

SOC Challenges Chip complexity Gate count, heterogeneous device technologies Signal integrity, timing Design methodology Testing

Designing SOC thus becomes a task of system integration. Other Challenging issues in SOC design: Interface among IPs from different venders Verification of function Physical design challenges

System Complexity Challenges

System Complexity = exponentially increasing transistor counts, with increased diversity (mixed-signal SOC, ) Reuse (hierarchical design support, heterogeneous SOC integration, reuse of verification/test/IP) Verification and test (specification capture, design for verifiability, verification reuse, system-level and software verification, AMS self-test, noise-delay fault tests, test reuse) Cost-driven design optimization (manufacturing cost modeling and analysis, quality metrics, die-package co-optimization, ) Embedded software design (platform-based system design methodologies, software verification/analysis, co-design w/HW) Reliable implementation platforms (predictable chip implementation onto multiple fabrics, higher-level handoff) Design process management (team size / geog distribution, data mgmt, collaborative design, process improvement)

Design Metrics and Techniques for SOC

Area Cell area Wirelength Timing Gate Interconnect Power Dynamic Static Leakage Signal Integrity Crosstalk (capacitive, inductive) Supply voltage drop (IR drop, LdI/dt) Reliability Variation (Vdd, thermal, process variation (tox, BEOL)) Electromigration Hot electron effect (SEU)

Cost minimization

Synthesis (technology mapping) Placement, routing

Performance optimization

Logic transformation, transistor sizing Buffering, re-routing

Power minimization

Gating (sleep transistors), variant Vdd Process optimization Dual-Vth

Signal Integrity

Sizing, net ordering, shielding P/G design, placement, synthesis

Reliability

80% of System in Embedded SW Hardware is not sufficient to build an SoC platform 70-80% of the system will be implemented in software Product differentiation will move to software from silicon Many IC companies hire more software designers than IC designers Standard platforms with software differentiation will be the trend Example: in Set-top box market, manufacturers are converting from 7 different chips to 1 chip with 7 different application SW

Statistical design optimization Design margin

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Efforts in Standardization Defacto bus standards AMBA, Core Connect, etc. VSIA (The Virtual Socket Interface (VSI) Alliance, formed in 1996 to foster the development and recognition of standards for designing and integrating reusable blocks of IP) is involved in developing standards in SoC design to promote widespread use of; on-chip bus attributes IP design exchange format specifications for signal integrity, soft/hard IP modeling, functional verification, test data formats documentation standards test access architecture standard VCID for tracking IP IP protection, IP quality IEEE testing standard (P1500)

SoC Example

SoC Architecture

pp. 15

pp. 16

TI OMAP5910 Dual-Core Processor

Productivity of IP Reusing
2009

Reused 76% New 24% 100 million

pp. 17

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Why must IP Reuse?

Design productivity crisis: Divergence of potential design complexity and designer productivity

TTD : The best approach for designing moderately sized and complex ASICs, consisting primarily of new logic (little if any reuse) on DSM (deep sub micron) processes, without a significant utilization of hierarchical design

BBD is behaviorally modeled at the system level, where hardware/software trade-offs and functional hardware/software co-verification using software simulation and/or hardware emulation is performed. The new design components are then partitioned and mapped onto specified functional RTL blocks, which are then designed to budgeted timing, power, and area constraints.
The design team is becoming more application-specific, and subsystems, such as embedded processing, digital data compression, and error correction, are required. Multiple design teams are formed to work on specific parts of the design. ASIC engineers are having difficulty developing realistic and comprehensive test benches. Interface timing errors between subsystems are increasing dramatically. The design team is looking for VCs outside of their group to help accelerate product development.

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What is platform? A stable core-based architecture for a target application Can be rapidly extended and customized What are the benefits of a platform? Major benefits are Increased productivity Derivative designs can be easily created Using software or hardware modifications Reduces the design time and increasing success rate Diverse applications each require a different platform Example of application Bluetooth platform AMBA bus and ARM TDMI CPU based

PBD encompasses the cumulative capabilities of the TDD and BBD technologies, plus extensive design reuse and design hierarchy. PBD can decrease the overall TTM for first products, and expand the opportunities and speed of delivering derivative products. System which requires PBD technology are, A significant number of functional designs are repeated within and across groups, yet little reuse is occurring between projects, and what does occur is at RTL. New convergence markets cannot be engaged with existing expertise and resources. Functional design bugs are causing multiple design iterations and/or respins. The competition is getting to market first and getting derivative products out faster.

Project post-mortems have shown that architectural trade-offs (hardware/software, VC selections) have been suboptimal. Changes in the derivative products are abandoned because of the risk of introducing errors. ICs are spending too much time on the test equipment during production, thus raising overall costs. Pre-existing VCs must be constantly redesigned.

Assignment on TTD, BBD and PBD Assignment on personal reuse portfolio, resource reuse portfolio and virtual component reuse portfolio

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Comparison between SOC, SIP and SOB SOC 1. A system-on-chip is a highly integrated, single-chip design using third-party and internal intellectual property. The IP can be either a behavioral or physical description of standard components, and the SoC can contain analog, digital or mixed-signal circuits. 2. A key advantage of SoC technology is the ability to reduce the performance limitations that result from the system board delays of going on- and off-chip. 3. Increases reliability for the system 4. Lowers overall system costs, because of fewer discrete components on the board. 5. High productivity. 6. Low power consumption Ex- mobile phone

SoC continued 7. TTM (time to market) is faster. 8. Low cost because of high production 9. Highest clock rate can be obtained. Limitations of SOC 1. The most critical hurdle centers on the IP and its integration into the design. 2. The integration process becomes more difficult if common interfaces are not provided for use in the IP modules. 3.Once the integration is achieved, a major effort is needed for verification of the design before final release. Such verification can account for more than 60 percent of the total design cycle. 4. More-costly and -sophisticated EDA tools to support both integration and verification

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SoC Continued 5. These chips become more complicated, there is a need to push for more-advanced silicon processes, to attain smaller die size and lower power. 6. The NRE (non recurring expenses) hurdle for SoC development can be quite significant when you include IP investment, EDA tools and silicon process NRE and processing.

Benefits of SOC Technology Higher productivity levels , Lower overall cost Lower overall power, Smaller form factor Higher integration levels, Rapid development of derivative designs market-driven forces for change are: Shrinking product design schedules and life spans Conforming products to complex interoperability standards, either de jure (type approval in communications markets) or de facto (cable companies acceptance of the set-top market) Lack of time for product iterations due to implementation errors: a failure to hit market windows equals product death Converging communications and computing into single products and chipsets

Definition of SiP System in Package (SiP) is a combination of multiple active electronic components of different functionality, assembled in a single unit that provides multiple functions associated with a system or sub-system. A SiP may optionally contain passives, MEMS, optical components and other packages and devices. Key areas of application for SiP designs include wireless products (GPS modules, Bluetooth solutions, 802.11 modems) and portable products where there is a need for a combination of large memory (SDRAM, flash, SRAM), and digital-logic or mixed-signal designs that require very sophisticated analog design. SiPs are usually segmented into three technology types: modules (single- or multichip), stacked dice and 3-D packaging.

SIP cont Modules are standard packages incorporating one or more horizontally arranged dice with chip-level interconnects (wire bond or flip-chip) and optional surface-mounted passive and active components mounted on a substrate. The substrate provides interchip connections, controlled-impedance lines, and grounding structures; it also has a protective casing. Stacked-dice packaging consists of two or more vertically stacked dice with chip-level interconnects (wire bonds) to a substrate, all enclosed in a standard-package format. 3-D packaging is a combination of standard prepackaged devices or components using laminate, ceramic, flex or lead-frame substrates, all stacked vertically with package-level interconnects.

SIP continued Advantages of SIP 1. SiP provides more integration flexibility 2. Faster time to market because SiP development time is shorter since the components do not require as much design verification at the functional level. 3. Lower R&D cost 4. Lower NRE cost 5. If a complicated substrate is limited only to the SiP module, then the entire system board does not require as many layers or impedance control. That reduces the system pc board costs and allows changes to be focused on the SiP itself, rather than on the entire system board.

SiP cont Limitation of SIP 1. Higher cost and development time for many new packaging technologies compared with those for standard off-the-shelf packages. 2. Many of the EDA tools for electrical/mechanical system designs for high-speed applications, as seen in SiPs, are not commercially available and thus require in-house development. 3. The overall performance, cost, size, and functionally of a SiP will be limited by both on-chip interconnects of the individual microchips as well as by off-chip interconnects. 4.

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Comparison of SOC and SIP

System on Board (SOB) The system is integrated on a printed circuit board, single layer or multilayer based on the complexity of the system. The inter connection between the system is done using copper or gold plated copper clad tracks. Advantages; 1. Since the system assembled on board, alteration in the interconnection design and application can be done easily. 2. The system cost is very less, because the base material is cheap 3. Time to market is fast 4. System development cost depends on the integration cost and individual product cost and it is normally high.

SOB cont Limitations; 1. The system speed is limited because of external interferences, capacitance between tracks, impedance between the layers, ground jumping etc. 2. The reliability of the system is poor because of many component 3. System cost is more. 4.

SOC and Productivity Two key design technologies are emerging to address the productivity side of SOC. 1. Technologies, integration platform and 2. Interface-based design, represent an amalgam of design principles, tools, architectures, methodologies, and management.

Design Reuse Options Option 1: chip-level reuse Fewer chips designed, HW programmable Undifferentiated silicon Option 2: processor-level reuse or software reuse Chip = processors + memory Big SW little hardware model , Undifferentiated silicon Option 3: widespread reuse High-value, domain specific reusable blocks Differentiated silicon

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Examples of IP Blocks in Use today RISC: ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC CISC: 680x0 x86 Interfaces: USB, PCI, UART, Rambus Encryptions: DES, AES Multimedia JPEG coder, MPEG decoder Networking: ATM switch, Ethernet Microcontroller: HC11, etc. DSP: Oak, TI, etc. SoC is forcing companies to develop high-quality IP blocks to stay in business

Reuse Methodology Manual (RMM)

Promoted by Synopsys and Mentor Graphics Purpose of the RMM Allow developers to consistently produce high-quality, reusable macros Provide integrators with insights into how to select qualified IP Integrate IP into System-on-Chip (SOC) designs Broadly accepted by SoC Industry Soft IP: Configurable and Portable IP

Soft macro deliverables

Documentation RTL code, both Verilog and VHDL Synthesis scripts that work for a variety of technology libraries Models and test benches for verifying the macro in the chip environment Installation scripts

Why Low Power?

Creation of the Deliverables

-Physical design issues -Timing and synthesis issues -Functional design issues -Verification strategies -Manufacturing test -Clocking, registers and avoiding accidental latches -Partitioning -VHDL Specific Guidelines -Verification of compliance

Design Guidelines

Key Idea
Simple, regular structures are easier to get functionally correct, to verify, and to synthesize

Coding Guidelines

Limited Battery Capacity (Mobile Devices) For Minimal Heat Dissipation (Heat Sink, Cooler, System Size/Weight/Cost) For Chip/System Reliability Save Energy; its limited after all! Power-Critical Applications ;
Heat Dissipation Requirement Power/Ground Metal Line Width Power/Ground Bounce due to IR drop

Synthesis Guidelines
-Based on a bottom-up synthesis strategy -A robust set of timing budgets Productization

Verification Methodology
-Simulation -Silicon prototyping

Energy-Critical Applications ;
Battery Lifetime Heat Dissipation Requirement

Applications for Low Power Technology

Medical ; Implantable hearing-aid, cardiac pacemaker Mobile Devices ; cellular phone Military Devices ; Hard-to-access points ; Space Too-many-to-access points ; Sensors/Actuators in Ubiquitous World Methods of reducing the power in SOC
Structural Techniques Voltage Islands Multi-threshold devices Multi-oxide devices Minimize capacitance by custom design Power efficient circuits Parallelism in micro-architecture Dynamic Techniques Clock gating Data gating Power gating Variable frequency Variable voltage supply Variable device threshold

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