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What are the best techniques for designing ICs with high scalability and flexibility?

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If you are an electrical engineer who works with integrated circuits (ICs), you know how important it is to design them with high scalability and flexibility. Scalability means that your IC can handle increasing demands of performance, functionality, and complexity without compromising quality or efficiency. Flexibility means that your IC can adapt to different requirements, applications, and environments without requiring major changes or redesigns. These two attributes can give you a competitive edge in the fast-paced and dynamic field of IC design. But how can you achieve them? In this article, we will explore some of the best techniques for designing ICs with high scalability and flexibility.

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Gopalakrishnan Krishnan

Entrepreneur || Technology Startups || Semiconductors
Sandeep Kumar

Sr. Director of Engg., Head - Engg.

1 Modular design

One of the key techniques for designing scalable and flexible ICs is to use a modular design approach. This means that you divide your IC into smaller, independent, and reusable units or modules that can be easily combined, modified, or replaced. Modular design can help you reduce the complexity of your IC, improve its reliability and maintainability, and enable faster and cheaper prototyping and testing. It can also allow you to customize your IC for different specifications, applications, or customers by adding, removing, or changing modules as needed.

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Gopalakrishnan Krishnan

Entrepreneur || Technology Startups || Semiconductors
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Modular design techniques in semiconductor development are imperative to improving quality, and simultaneously reducing time to market. Much like smaller states being easier to govern, smaller designs are easier to verify and thereby achieve necessary quality objectives. They are quicker to churn in physical design cycles too. They can also be generally independently developed, thereby improving design schedules. On the flip side, they may add a slightly higher cost to the overall design area (Eg. need to provide register stages on the interfaces b/w independent blocks). However, the realized benefits significantly outweigh the costs. More so, with advances in Moore's law, where the cost of a transistor has consistently reduced.

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Balaji "Bala" Balasubramanian

Applications Engineering at Alphawave Semi| Ex Intel, Xilinx & AMD | Canadian Citizen
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Modern SoCs source IP from outside or from sister teams. The design milestones are often aligned with more than one supplier lined up.

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2 Reconfigurable logic

Another technique for designing scalable and flexible ICs is to use reconfigurable logic devices, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or programmable logic devices (PLDs). These are ICs that can be programmed or reprogrammed after fabrication to perform different functions or tasks. Reconfigurable logic devices can help you increase the versatility and adaptability of your IC, as well as save time and cost by avoiding the need for new hardware or fabrication. They can also enable you to update or upgrade your IC in response to changing market demands, customer feedback, or technological innovations.

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Balaji "Bala" Balasubramanian

Applications Engineering at Alphawave Semi| Ex Intel, Xilinx & AMD | Canadian Citizen
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FPGAs are the best choice for flexible ICs. The only downside being Power/Area. Most applications that have an evolving specification start with an FPGA followed by ASIC once the specification is finalized and the volumes are justified.

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3 Standard interfaces

A third technique for designing scalable and flexible ICs is to use standard interfaces, such as buses, protocols, or connectors, to communicate and interact with other components or systems. Standard interfaces can help you improve the compatibility and interoperability of your IC, as well as simplify its integration and testing. They can also facilitate the reuse and exchange of modules or devices, as well as the expansion or extension of your IC's functionality or performance. By using standard interfaces, you can avoid the problems of proprietary or incompatible interfaces that can limit or hinder your IC's scalability and flexibility.

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Gopalakrishnan Krishnan

Entrepreneur || Technology Startups || Semiconductors
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Standadized hardware interfaces are similar to APIs in the software world. We get to know what to expect. Further, standard interfaces allow for a "rules" based engagement model, which are very critical in an ecosystem driven business such as the semiconductor industry. They also provide a level playing field where newer companies such as fledgling startups can innovate at the "core" and not worry about incumbents changing the "rules of engagement" at the interfaces midway.

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Sandeep Kumar

Sr. Director of Engg., Head - Engg.
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Standard interfaces provide flexibility and scalability with external components/subsystem for functionality and connectivity perspective. For applications where performance is a major differentiator, a mix of high performance proprietary internal interfaces (internal to the IC or subsystem) can provide competitive advantages; while keeping the external standard interfaces. In some applications, even careful use of “redundant or unused” fields in standard protocols may provide competitive advantage, especially in telecom field! However, careful analysis is needed to evaluate rewards vs risks!

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Balaji "Bala" Balasubramanian

Applications Engineering at Alphawave Semi| Ex Intel, Xilinx & AMD | Canadian Citizen
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Standard interfaces mean IP providers can be chosen easily. As well, collaterals used towards FW/SW can be reused. Silicon itself is useless outside of a system stack.

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4 Design automation

A fourth technique for designing scalable and flexible ICs is to use design automation tools, such as computer-aided design (CAD), simulation, verification, or synthesis software. These are tools that can help you automate or streamline some of the tasks or processes involved in IC design, such as layout, optimization, analysis, or validation. Design automation tools can help you increase the productivity and efficiency of your IC design, as well as reduce the errors and risks. They can also enable you to explore different design alternatives or scenarios, as well as evaluate the trade-offs or impacts of your design choices on your IC's scalability and flexibility.

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5 Design for manufacturability

A fifth technique for designing scalable and flexible ICs is to use design for manufacturability (DFM) principles, methods, or guidelines. These are techniques that can help you optimize your IC design for the fabrication process, such as minimizing the number of masks, layers, or vias, or maximizing the yield, quality, or reliability. Design for manufacturability can help you reduce the cost and time of your IC production, as well as enhance its performance and functionality. It can also enable you to address or avoid the challenges or limitations of the fabrication technology, such as process variations, defects, or parasitics, that can affect your IC's scalability and flexibility.

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Balaji "Bala" Balasubramanian

Applications Engineering at Alphawave Semi| Ex Intel, Xilinx & AMD | Canadian Citizen
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Today, the world really has 2 or maybe 3 viable fabs. They all mandate DRC and DFM rules. There is no way around this. This hardly means we are building scalable or flexible ICs.

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6 Design for testability

A sixth technique for designing scalable and flexible ICs is to use design for testability (DFT) techniques, such as scan chains, test vectors, or built-in self-test (BIST). These are techniques that can help you improve the testability or detectability of your IC, such as facilitating the access, control, or observation of its internal signals or states. Design for testability can help you increase the quality and reliability of your IC, as well as reduce the cost and time of its testing or debugging. It can also enable you to cope or deal with the complexity or diversity of your IC's functions or features, as well as the scalability or flexibility of its design.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Sandeep Kumar

Sr. Director of Engg., Head - Engg.
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Due to high development time and high NRE involved, reusable modular designs with standard interfaces (or common interface) & scalable architecture are most viable approach from economy and technology perspective. However, one needs to carefully analyse competitive dynamics and cognitive complexity, which may limit the modularity!

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What are the best techniques for designing ICs with high scalability and flexibility?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Modular design

2 Reconfigurable logic

3 Standard interfaces

4 Design automation

5 Design for manufacturability

6 Design for testability

7 Here’s what else to consider

Electrical Design

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What are the best techniques for designing ICs with high scalability and flexibility?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Modular design

2 Reconfigurable logic

3 Standard interfaces

4 Design automation

5 Design for manufacturability

6 Design for testability

7 Here’s what else to consider

Electrical Design

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