Static Sign-Off Best Practices DAC Panel Proceedings

Google, Nvidia, Samsung & Real Intent — videos, slides & transcripts

Panelists discussed their static sign off goals, the selected best practices and technologies they use to support those goals, and the results they achieved in accelerating early functional verification & sign-off of digital designs.

CEO Opening by Prakash Narain

Panelists — with individual videos, slides & transcripts:

Static sign-off technologies covered include: Multimode & dynamic clock domain crossing (CDC) sign off; Reset domain crossing sign off to eliminate metastability issues; and RTL Linting.

Prakash Narain Opening: Verification Metrics for Simulation & Formal, & Static Sign-Off

Real Intent CEO Prakash Narain presents on how static verification compares with dynamic verification, and how simulation, formal, and static sign-off each rate in terms of the 3 key verification metrics.

  1. Comparing Static Verification vs. Dynamic Verification
  2. Static Sign-Off, Formal & Simulation– Overlap & Differences
  3. Three Key Functional Verification Metrics Simulation
  4. Formal & Static Sign-Off Performance Against Verification Metrics
CEO Opening: Slides & Transcript

Google: Static Sign-Off Methodology & Results

Hamid Shojaei of Google presents a case study on Google’s static sign-off methodology. Hamid covers best practices & results for RTL Linting, Single mode & Multimode clock domain crossing & Reset domain crossing.

  1. Google & Machine Learning, TPUs
  2. Google TPU Design Challenges
  3. Clocking is Primary ASIC Design Challenge
  4. Static Sign-Off Best Practices
  5. Google’s Results: Found More bugs, Reduced Late Changes
  6. Google’s Must Haves Moving Forward
  7. Q&A: Why would you use multi-mode CDC over single-mode CDC?
Google: Slides & Transcript

Nvidia: Static Sign-Off Best Practices

John Busco of Nvidia presented a case study on Nvidia’s static sign-off methodology and best practices, spanning RTL Linting, RDC, Single- & multi-mode CDC, RTL & gate-level CDC.

  1. Nvidia Chips Push PPA Limits
  2. When & Where Static Sign-Off Tools Are Used
  3. Problems Addressed by Static Sign-Off
  4. Static Sign-Off Successes
  5. Best Practices
  6. Key Tool Capabilities Needed
  7. Conclusion: Static Sign-Off is Essential
  8. Panel Q&A: Why would you use multi-mode CDC over single-mode CDC?
NVIDIA: Slides & Transcript

Samsung: Static Verification Sign-Off across Multiple Domains

Brian Choi of Samsung presented a case study on Samsung’s RTL linting and clock domain crossing sign-off methodology.

  1. Design Challenges: Design size & Increasing IP integration
  2. Simulation, Formal, and Emulation
  3. Static Verification & RTL Sign-Off
  4. Case Study: Hierarchical CDC for SoCs
  5. Divide & Conquer Approach
  6. Results
  7. Conclusion
Samsung: Slides & Transcript

Real Intent: The Role of Static Sign-Off Methodology vs. Tools

DAC 2019 panel presentation by Oren Katzir of Real Intent (edited transcript) Presentation Overview Oren Katzir of Real Intent presented on the interrelated role of tools vs methodologies for static sign off.

  1. Static Sign-Off Goal
  2. Best Practices
  3. Static Sign-off Methodology vs Tools
  4. Static Sign-Off Methodology Results
Real Intent: Slides & Transcript