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Custom & digital layout designers…Use the Calibre RealTime Platform to close DRC fixes faster.

By Design With Calibre

By Srinivas Velivala

Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, once said of deadlines, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” But, as custom and digital layout designers will tell you, tapeout deadlines that whoosh past them are costing the company money and opportunity. These designers are the frontline workers who are responsible for getting the job done and taping out on time, no matter how tight those deadlines get or the challenges that arise. They are the ones plodding through the tedious and time-consuming process of DRC closure well into the night, sacrificing their personal lives, their time with friends and family, and their sleep. The last thing they want to do is make one DRC fix in a small design window, then wait for hours for the full design DRC run to finish so they can check the results. They’ve already done that too many times…

But wait! What if I told you that you could finish those DRC fixes in time to hit the pub for Trivia Quiz night, or to read your children another chapter of their favorite book before bedtime? What if I told you that you really can get a good night’s sleep…every night? The Calibre RealTime platform comprises the Calibre RealTime Custom and Calibre RealTime Digital tools that provide interactive, immediate, signoff-quality DRC feedback in custom and digital design environments. No more waiting for hours to see if your DRC fixes worked. Instead of getting one more cup of warmed-up coffee as you struggle to stay awake, you get your DRC feedback in seconds. Enabling these Calibre RealTime products in your design environments is a breeze, and the simple, intuitive GUI will have you and your entire team using the integration with little to no ramp-up time. This ease-of-use lets you focus on making the optimum DRC fix in less time with better layout quality.

Sound good? Already reaching for your giant book of trivia to bone up on 18th-century monarchs, or practicing your silly voices that annoy your kids so much? Here are a few things you can do to start accelerating your DRC closures…

If you’re a digital designer focused on meeting power, performance and area (PPA) goals, and closing DRC fixes as quickly as possible, start by reading this customer testimonial, MaxLinear and Calibre RealTime Digital: Signoff DRC in P&R. This paper, co-written with digital designers at MaxLinear, explains how MaxLinear used the Calibre RealTime Digital tool to reduce overall DRC closure time by 50%. Next, read another customer testimonial, Qualcomm achieves faster signoff DRC convergence in P&R with Calibre RealTime Digital DRC, in which you’ll learn how digital designers at Qualcomm used the Calibre RealTime Digital tool to fix top-level vs. IP interface DRC errors quickly by using the ability to visualize the top-level and IP shapes completely within the P&R environment, and ended up shaving weeks off their DRC closure cycle.

If you’re a custom layout designer, I expect your focus during DRC debug is to ensure that you can run signoff-quality DRC on-demand after every few edits, and quickly fix any DRC errors while also optimizing the layout. Never fear, we have customer testimonials for you, too. Start your journey to DRC productivity by reading this paper co-written with AMD custom layout designers: Better layouts in less time: AMD and the Calibre RealTime Custom interface. Not only did they get a rapid “trial and error” debugging process, but using the Calibre RealTime Custom tool actually helped them learn new design node rules as they iterated through possible optimizations. Or would you rather hear how STMicroelectronics achieved a 2-5X productivity gain using the Calibre RealTime Custom tool with their 14FDSOI design? In that case, check out STMicroelectronics’ experience with the Calibre RealTime Custom interface: 2-5X productivity gains in 14FDSOI design.

Finally, both custom and digital designers, along with CAD engineers, can quickly master the use of Calibre RealTime integration by watching our Calibre RealTime How-To video playlist on YouTube. This collection of short tutorials walks you through the use of the tools for specific situations and actions.

So, off you go, you trivia champion! Off you go, you “Pleeeease, read us just ONE MORE chapter” champion of bedtime! Or even just…off you go, on time, to enjoy a quiet evening at home and a good night’s sleep. We know how hard you work to ensure that your company’s products can be released to market on time. We’re proud to provide the tools that help make that hard work less time-consuming, more efficient, and more productive, without losing a single iota of signoff quality. Now go, and figure out the best use for all that newly-acquired personal time!

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This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/calibre/2022/08/08/custom-digital-layout-designersuse-the-calibre-realtime-platform-to-close-drc-fixes-faster/