1. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 1 U.K. Design Forum Manchester, 9th April 2002 John Morris Microelectronics Support Centre Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

2. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 2 Talk Outline t Background t Role of the Microelectronics Support Centre (MSC) t Future t Conclusions

3. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 3 Background t UK industry needs: l Microelectronic/electronic system designers l Well trained l Aware of up-to-date techniques and flows t Universities can deliver these designers through l Advanced Training Courses … if Engineers exposed to these flows and techniques l Research Projects Aimed at extending existing techniques Undertaken in knowledge of existing capabilities t Generally agree: acute shortage of such engineers

4. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 4 Rapid Technology Evolution t Many new design challenges ● Increase in design complexity ● Increase in clock frequencies/bandwidths ● Increase in integration of hardware and software ● Increase in component densities on sub-systems ● Increase in pressure to complete designs quickly ● IC process feature size decreasing quickly ● Increase in die capacity ● Increase in cost of respins ● Designs must be correct first time ●...

5. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 5 Some Demands on Designers t Complexity l Higher-level design, synthesis, re-use, “IP blocks”,... t Hardware and software integration l Completely new approaches, allowing flexible partitioning t Clock frequency l Signal integrity, EMC, delay, power rail analyses,... t Component densities l Sophisticated, built-in test structures, thermal analysis,... t Small process feature size l New device models, problems with “timing closure”, new sorts of process layout rules,...

6. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 6 Universities and Microelectronic Systems Time Technology Industrially relevant University following technology curve Less use to industry University struggling to keep on technology curve Help Many universities now tell us that this evolution is hard to track

7. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 7 MSC Aims t MSC Aims for the U.K. l Affordable access to industry-standard design flows for universities l Fast route to effective usage in universities t Platform for universities for l Advanced training l Research projects t Two strands in MSC l Software procurement service l Expert guidance centre

8. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 8 Procurement Service: Principles t Affordable prices based on l Non-commercial use Academic Training Publicly-funded research for open publication l Centralised support/ordering through MSC at RAL l Wide portfolio with few options l Maximum functionality from fewest vendors

9. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 9 Procurement Service: Aside t Some vendors allow limited industrial collaboration l Experienced university l Inexperienced company on first, named design l For designated period l With vendor’s express permission l On payment of supplement l Must involve technology transfer l Not for contract design

10. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 10 Procurement: Tools and Flows t Wide spectrum of functionality l Address these leading-edge problems l Front-line industrial vendors t Novel device-level research l Modelling from physical device parameters l Behavioural descriptions t System-level design and integration l System C l Hardware/software co-design l IP blocks

11. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 11 Procurement: Tools and Flows t Implementation routes l FPGA l Sub-system (including high-speed PCB and MCM) l Digital/Analog ASIC: down to 0.13um l MST (MEMS and Microfluidics)

12. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 12 Design Flows - based on Leading Design Tool and IP Vendors

13. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 13 Devices: Technology CAD

14. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 14 Portfolio Example: MEMs and MicroFluidics

15. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 15 Devices: Simulation t Analogue, multi-domain, behavioural simulators l Avant! SABER l Cadence SPECTRE-HDL l Mentor Graphics ELDO t Simulating novel devices l Electronic l MST(MEMS and MicroFluidic)

16. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 16 t Inventra IPX l Leonardo-Altera l Blocks for Computing Consumer Communications applications Intellectual Property (IP) Blocks t Other IP for FPGAs l Altera and Xilinx l Core IP included in standard bundles l Access to advanced IP - 10% of list

17. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 17 Embedded Processor Implementation ARM NIOS and ARM MicroBlaze

18. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 18 System Level Integration

19. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 19 Cadence Physically Knowledgeable Synthesis

20. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 20 Usage Environment t In industry (at which tools are aimed) l Dedicated CAD group to Select tools Resolve version compatibility issues –Multi-vendor design flows –Design kit Install tools Integrate and maintain flows Provide technical support for designers l Big accounts also have Designated vendor AE(s) assigned for support

21. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 21 University usage t In most universities l These resources not available l Academic staff - too little time for this level of detail l Decreasing level of dedicated EDA support staff Often only general system manager t Need for expert guidance centre

22. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 22 Role of the MSC at RAL t Provide expert centre for UK universities to l Advise on capability of tools and best design practice l Promote use of latest tools and techniques l Advise on compatibility of tools from different vendors l Advise on compatibility with design kits for IC l Address technical usage problems through e-mail, phone remote access, site visits l Provide training for university users l Enable technology transfer to local industry

23. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 23 Future t MSC is keen to extend the service to cover, for example l Optoelectronics l R.F. Design l … t But … finding it increasingly difficult to secure funding to proceed at an appropriate level

24. UK Design Forum, 9 April 2002 Slide - 24 Conclusions t The MSC at RAL offers most comprehensive, coordinated design tool and flow service in the world for UK universities t Dual-role l Affordable access to leading industry-standard tools and flows l Expert advice on selection and usage t Infrastructure for university training & research t Empower universities to use industrially relevant design flows quickly and effectively