Easily manage multiple verification jobs with Calibre

Calibre Multiple Job Submission GUI helps you optimize your IC design verification

As the complexity of integrated circuits (ICs) continues to grow, design teams face mounting challenges in verifying these intricate designs. Advancements in semiconductor technology have led to ICs of unprecedented size and functionality, necessitating more sophisticated and efficient verification processes to ensure design integrity and reliability.

One of the key obstacles design teams now encounter is managing the sheer volume of verification tasks required to comprehensively validate modern ICs. With multiple design IPs, varying methodologies, and an ever-increasing list of checks and tests, the manual coordination and execution of the entire verification workflow has become an arduous and error-prone undertaking.

Recognizing these challenges, Siemens EDA offers the Calibre Interactive Multiple Job Submission (MJS) GUI, which includes new and updated capabilities. The MJS GUI is a powerful tool that streamlines the verification process and delivers tangible benefits to design teams. In this blog post, we’ll explore how the Calibre MJS GUI has helped a leading telecommunications customer optimize their IC design verification workflows.

Automating the verification flow

One of the most significant advantages of the Calibre MJS GUI is its ability to automate and capture the entire verification flow. Rather than relying on manual job initiation and management, the MJS GUI allows users to run the complete verification flow or select specific parts of it with just a few clicks.

One of our customers at a major semiconductor company said that the MJS GUI excels in providing an easy-to-use interface for setting up job dependencies, sequential and parallel jobs, and optimizing the use of available resources. This eliminates the need for manual coordination and reduces the risk of human error, ensuring that the entire verification process is handled systematically.

Watch a demonstration of how to run and monitor multiple Calibre jobs with the Calibre MJS GUI on our YouTube channel here.

By automating the verification workflow, the MJS GUI ensures that all necessary checks and tasks are incorporated into the process, mitigating the risk of designers inadvertently overlooking critical steps. This comprehensive oversight provides design teams with the confidence that no essential verification steps are missed, reducing the likelihood of costly reruns and undetected design errors.

Optimizing resource utilization

In addition to automating the verification flow, the Calibre MJS GUI also optimizes resource utilization. Through features like “single-click” verification flow management, streamlined layout streaming, and efficient license allocation, the tool helps design teams maximize the productivity of their available resources.

Traditionally, streaming out the layout for each run could consume a significant portion of the total runtime. MJS optimizes this by allowing the stream out of the layout only once for all runs, saving time and reducing the computational load, enhancing overall efficiency.

The MJS GUI also supports “license queuing” and allows for case-by-case definition of licenses in the runset. This flexibility is crucial during different phases of a project, such as tape-out rush periods or standard working hours, enabling design teams to adjust license allocations based on urgency and project needs. By maximizing resource utilization, the Calibre MJS GUI helps design teams reduce costs and improve overall productivity.

Enhancing visibility and monitoring

Effective job monitoring and status tracking are critical components of a well-managed verification workflow. The Calibre MJS GUI addresses this need by providing an uncluttered and organized interface that consolidates all verification tasks into a single platform.

With MJS, our customer set up their workflow to receive email notifications upon the completion of each run, eliminating the need for constant manual status monitoring. This feature allows designers to focus on debugging results and addressing issues promptly rather than repeatedly checking the status of ongoing runs.

By offering enhanced visibility and monitoring capabilities, the MJS GUI keeps designers informed about the progress of their verification tasks without being overwhelmed by scattered information or multiple windows. This streamlined approach enables designers to focus on resolving issues and advancing the design process, rather than being bogged down by the administrative burden of tracking job statuses.

Delivering tangible benefits

Our customer found that adoption of the Calibre Interactive MJS GUI delivered significant value to their IC design and verification workflows. By automating the verification flow, optimizing resource utilization and improving visibility and monitoring, the MJS GUI has helped them address the challenges of complex IC design verification.

At the block level, the MJS GUI’s templated approach to physical verification (PV) flows ensures that no essential verification steps are overlooked, preventing costly reruns and undetected design errors. This comprehensive coverage, combined with the tool’s ability to consolidate all verification tasks into a single platform, has simplified the overall process and allowed designers to focus on improving their designs without the risk of missing critical checks.

Ready to streamline your IC verification? Discover how the Calibre Interactive MJS GUI can transform your verification flow in our recent technical paper.