Waiver headaches? We have a cure for that…
By James Paris – Mentor, A Siemens Business
Creating a standardized IP waivers database to deliver with physical IP libraries and blocks simplifies chip debugging and saves time during design iterations. Calibre Auto-Waivers can help with that…
Waivers for design rule violations in physical IP libraries and blocks may exist for any number of reasons—overly restrictive design rules, retargeting of design data from one technology to another, or when the foundry decides it can achieve acceptable yield even with some design rule violations. But how many times have you debugged a DRC error on an IP, only to learn that error had already been analyzed and waived? Or encountered the same error over and over as the cells were referenced in a larger chip design? Even worse, finding out that every IP supplier manages waivers differently.
Think of all the time you could save if you had a single, repeatable waiver management process that could streamline communications between you, the IP supplier, and the foundry, and drastically reduce your debugging time. And while we’re at it, let’s add permanent waiver documentation, so when the design team down the hall from you uses the same IP in another design, they already have access to the original waiver history.
Too much to ask? Not at all. The Calibre® Auto-Waivers™ functionality lets you create and apply waivers during design implementation, then automatically waives those violations during design rule checking runs and provides a list of used and unused waivers in the results. There are several different waiver flows within the Calibre platform that can be used to create and apply waivers during design implementation, so you can determine which approach best suits your design flows and processes.
Embedding automated waiver methodology into your physical verification flow at the IP development stage through chip tape-out ensures waiver consistency and shortens debug time, enabling you to focus on repairing only un-waived results. Adding the ability to record pertinent information about the waivers in that IP enables future users to implement that IP quickly and confidently, without the need to repeat the waiver approval process.
If you’d like to see just how this would work, check out our white paper, Physical IP Management with Calibre Auto-Waivers. We’ll walk you through an example to show you how easy it is to implement the Calibre Auto-Waivers process in your design verification flow.
