IC-Design Suite Brings Packaging Into The Picture

Feb. 2, 2006
Thanks to an interconnect-synthesis approach, the RioMagic chip design and optimization suite lets designers account for the way signals leave an IC package, ensure their routability, and analyze those signals' electrical fidelity. RioMagic analyzes

Thanks to an interconnect-synthesis approach, the RioMagic chip design and optimization suite lets designers account for the way signals leave an IC package, ensure their routability, and analyze those signals' electrical fidelity.

RioMagic analyzes a range of variables to converge on a final I/O plan for an IC design, making simultaneous tradeoffs between chip and package design.

With RioMagic, IC designers can develop optimized I/O strategies for their chips and packages using a chip/package co-design flow that begins during initial IC floorplanning. Later, RioMagic can be reused when there are changes in the design to validate the initial I/O plan or to re-optimize it using an updated set of design criteria.

A unified data model represents relevant data for the chip and package. This model facilitates optimization by bringing all design elements into the synthesis flow, which means the entire chip and package can be represented simultaneously. The industry-standard OpenAccess database unifies the data model.

Along with physical implementation, RioMagic offers extraction and analysis capabilities that can approximate signal performance from specific drivers on the chip to the package's ball-grid contacts.

RioMagic runs under the Linux operating system. A three-year time-based license costs $199,000/year.

Rio Design Automation
www.rio-da.com

About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.

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