Cadence embraces AI with Virtuoso Studio

Generative AI technology features in the Virtuoso Studio to empower designers to push semiconductor and 3D-IC design boundaries by seamless integration, said Cadence Design Systems.

The new Cadence Virtuoso Studio is a custom design platform for custom analogue design, said the company. It features a reimagined infrastructure, manages design processes and allows more than a three-fold improvement in design throughput for today’s largest designs.

A new design space optimisation feature lets customers use AI algorithms to navigate competing specifications and aid in design centring, particularly after the process migration of a design. Customers can experience faster interactive editing in both the layout and schematic tools, thanks to optimised code and algorithms, while multi-threading accelerates rendering, connectivity extraction and design rule checks in parallel. The Cadence Spectre FMC analysis is integrated into Virtuoso Studio and provides a complete machine learning-based Monte Carlo variation to deliver a three-to-six-sigma yield with orders of magnitude speedup over brute force Monte Carlo analysis.

Virtuoso Studio addresses the challenges customers face with larger, more complex designs, with analysis and verification to ensure that design intent is maintained throughout the design cycle. This iteration features seamless integration with other Cadence tools, including the Cadence Spectre Simulation Platform, Cadence Allegro PCB Design and Cadence Pegasus Verification System. According to Cadence, it removes traditional barriers between different design domains and speeding design closure. Virtuoso Studio is integrated with AWR Microwave Office, Pegasus Design Rule Check (DRC) Solution and Layout Versus Schematic (LVS), all available from within the Virtuoso Layout Suite. These provide mmWave design and interactive signoff quality analysis during layout creation. Additionally, customers can access the Spectre Simulation Platform, including the Spectre X Simulator and Spectre FX Simulator, through Virtuoso Studio, which allows designers to analyse the industry’s largest analogue and mixed-signal designs.

The new Virtuoso Studio can be used for analogue, RFIC and mixed-signal designs. It allows design teams to leverage comprehensive planar and FinFET-based layout placement automation and new routing to improve engineering productivity.

It also offers scalable, cloud-ready solutions for occurrences when hundreds of simulations become thousands. The software is optimised for customers’ preferred cloud providers or ready for private cloud deployment.

To ease with the process migration for schematics and layouts, tools within the Virtuoso ADE Suite quickly re-centre and validate designs post-migration, to reduce time-to-market. Customers can use the AI-enabled tools to take existing IP and transform it for the next-generation designs.

It also allows the heterogeneous integration of 2.5D and 3D designs for advanced nodes, analogue / RF packaging / modules and photonics systems.

http://www.cadence.com

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Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors secures ‘always on’ NAS systems

Developed for use in ‘always on’ networking firewalls, network attached storage systems and other security applications, AMD’s Ryzen Embedded 5000 series processors is the latest member of the Zen 3-based AMD embedded processor portfolio, joining the Ryzen Embedded V3000 and EPYC Embedded 7000 series families.

The processors are equipped with six, eight, 12 or 16 cores and 24 lanes of PCIe Gen4 connectivity. 

The Ryzen Embedded 5000 series processors offer scalability up to 16 cores and 32 threads and up to 64Mbyte of shared L3 CPU cache.

The processors are designed for enterprise reliability to support the consistent uptime requirements needed by security and networking customers, explained AMD. Features include an ECC-supported memory subsystem. The thermal design power (TDP) profile ranges from 65W to 105W, enabling the Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors to reduce the overall system cooling footprint for space-constrained and cost-sensitive applications.

According to Rajneesh Gaur, corporate vice president and general manager, embedded solutions group, AMD: “This expansion of our embedded product portfolio offers a mid-range solution that fills the gap between our low-power BGA Ryzen Embedded and . . .  EPYC embedded family for customers requiring both high performance and scalability of up to 16 cores.”

The series consists of the 5950E with 16 cores, the 5900E (12 cores), 5800W (eight cores) and 5600E (six cores) all with 24 PCIe Gen 43 lanes and 3.05 to 3.4GHz CPU base frequency, depending on the model.

The Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors are built on 7nm technology and are currently in production, with planned five-year manufacturing availability.
For more than 50 years, AMD has innovated in high performance computing, graphics and visualisation technologies, says the company.

http://www.amd.com

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Dedicated software library accompanies MEMS inertial sensing module 

The ASM330LHB is an automotive-qualified MEMS inertial-sensing module by STMicroelectronics. It provides measurements for a variety of vehicle functions and is provided with dedicated software which addresses functional-safety applications up to ASIL B1.

The module contains a three-axis digital accelerometer and three-axis digital gyroscope and provides a six-channel synchronised output. The inertial measurements can improve the precise positioning of the car in context, said ST. It can support ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) or vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, help stabilise key sensing systems like radar, lidar and visual cameras, and assist semi-automated driving applications up to L2+. It can also be used to enable a variety of functionalities in the car body, added ST.

Used with the companion software, the ASM330LHB supports automotive systems that require safety integrity up to level B. Using two ASM330LHB sensor modules for fail-safe redundancy delivers resilient contextual data for driver-assistance applications, such as lane centring, emergency braking, cruise assistance and semi-automated driving. The ASIL B -compatible software library has been developed in accordance with the automotive functional-safety standard ISO 26262 and certified independently by TÜV SÜD. The library implements dedicated safety mechanisms, including data integrity and accuracy to ensure compliance with ASIL B automotive systems.

The ASM330LHB has embedded intelligence to add new services about the car status when the driver is away. The integrated machine learning core draws just a few microA of current, said ST and a machine learning algorithm can detect events such as theft attempts, jacking-up or towing, or impacts from other vehicles. 

By monitoring threshold combinations, the integrated finite state machine can detect when the vehicle is in motion or stationary, and for sensing vibrations or instability.

The accelerometer and gyroscope inside the module maintain high stability over time and temperature and have very low noise, achieving an overall bias instability of three degrees per hour. The ASM330LHB operates over the extended temperature range of -40 to +105 degrees C and has multiple operating modes that let designers optimise the data-update rate and power consumption.

The ASM330LHB is AEC-Q100 qualified and in production now in a 2.5 x 3.0mm 14-lead VFLGA package.

http://www.st.com 

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GNSS receiver is tailored for automotive applications

The u-blox ZED-F9L is an L1/L5 GNSS receiver module, designed for automotive, telematics, V2X (vehicle to everything) and navigation applications.

It has integrated dead reckoning technology, six-axis IMU (inertial measurement unit), multiple outputs and robust automotive grade hardware (AEC-Q104) for  automotive designs that demand top-tier performance and seamless integration, said u-blox.

The ZED-F9L leverages L1/L5 band signals and six satellite constellations simultaneously, including NavIC. The receiver provides continuous sub-meter-level positioning accuracy, using algorithms to combine GNSS measurements, IMU data, wheel ticks, and vehicle dynamics for positioning and attitude data, even when GNSS services are unavailable, u-blox added. The receiver also has a 50Hz output rate with low latency for real-time applications.

Operating temperature is up to 105 degrees C, for use in telematic control units (TCUs) under the roof or smart antennas and motorbike applications. Security features include anti-jamming and sensor-based anti-spoofing techniques.

The ZED-F9L module is pin-to-pin compatible with the ZED-F9K module, offering an upgrade path to RTK (real time kinetic) technology.

u-blox specialises in positioning and wireless communication in automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. The company’s products and services let people, vehicles, and machines determine their precise position and communicate wirelessly over cellular and short range networks. It offers a broad portfolio of chips, modules, and secure data services and connectivity for customers to develop innovative and reliable solutions for the IoT quickly and cost-effectively. The company has headquarters in Thalwil, Switzerland and offices in Europe, Asia, and the USA. 

http://www.u-blox.com

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