Barry & Intel Investors - Merced PCB Design Tools are Becoming Available.
Cadence is making available CAD Design Software tools specifically for Merced PCB design.
The Merced ascension is slowly building.
Paul
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techweb.com
November 23, 1998, Issue: 1036
Section: Design Automation
Cadence tailors a PCB design kit for 64-bit Merced
Michael Santarini
San Jose, Calif. - Cadence Design Systems Inc. has rolled out a
SpecctraQuest PCB design kit and methodology optimized for Intel Corp.'s
64-bit Merced processor, which is expected in sample volume in 1999 and
production volume in mid-2000.
A processor-specific methodology and design kit represents a new direction
for Cadence's pc-board systems division. The move is driven by customer
demands for system solutions that deal with the complexity and speed of
next-generation processors, said Keith Felton, product marketing director for
high-speed system-design solutions.
"This new architecture from Intel we see as the start of a watershed, where the
changes in silicon technologies are so great that traditional [design]
methodologies don't work anymore," said Felton. "You can't print rules and
design guides on a booklet anymore-you need intelligent electronic data to
drive the downstream design process."
First in series
The kit and methodology for Merced are the first in a series. Felton said that
Cadence is already involved with Intel on developing processor-specific kits
for the rest of Intel's IA-64 family, of which Merced is the first.
Felton said the methodology will reduce the time it takes to design
Merced-based systems by providing users with the tools they need to
architect, explore, design and verify the system.
Where traditional design kits are usually a set of independent simulation
models developed for ASICs, this kit represents a new approach, Felton said.
"We have actually put together a complete portfolio of models, topologies,
bus definitions and timing information and wrapped it all up in the
SpecctraQuest environment." As a result, he said, "You can design from the
conceptual level-where you plug the processor and chip set together-and take
that conceptual-level design all the way through to a completed circuit board."
The design kit includes a verified signal-integrity I/O model for the processor
and its supporting chip set, interconnect topology templates that are normally
supplied as a design guide, and a packaged processor model that includes
ground-bounce data.
'Powerful beast'
"With Merced, you have to look at things like ground bounce," Felton said.
"It's a powerful beast that consumes a fair amount of current. You have to
ensure in your design that you adequately supply current to the processor so
you don't get a huge drop in the voltage differentials in the power plane."
Felton said Cadence developed the kit at the request of customers. "When it
comes to this processor, which is very complex and runs extremely fast, Intel's
partners said 'we can't do this the old way and expect to get products to
market meeting our time lines.' " Felton said the partners and Cadence
convinced Intel to share data under non-disclosure agreements so that
Cadence could develop the kit. Intel then reviewed it for accuracy.
According to Felton, Intel will offer the development kit free to its Merced
partners. Since the kit runs only with SpecctraQuest, Cadence expects to sell
more copies of that tool to the 20-odd Merced partners.
He said Cadence does not have an exclusive deal to develop kits for Intel,
and he expects more EDA companies will follow suit in the coming months.
Copyright ® 1998 CMP Media Inc. |
