Design Services that are Steering the Semiconductor Market
The semiconductor industry is one of the most competitive industries, with several companies engaging in modern design and fabrication of semiconductor devices. These devices possess several distinct characteristics and act as key drivers for economic growth in addition to being a major technology enabler for the entire electronics value chain. As the industry matures, there is an impending need for high degrees of flexibility and innovation that enable companies to constantly adjust to the rapid pace of change in the market. With most electronic devices getting smaller with each passing day, the semiconductor device industry strives with one simple mantra — the smaller the component, the higher the capability. Smaller chips mean more chips can be packed into a single device. More chips mean faster performance. And well, faster performance is what exudes success.
Design Services — A Sneak Peak
In an industry which witnesses immense competition and technological changes that happen every day, one needs to improvize every day. So how does an industry which needs to innovate on a periodic basis keep up with the pressure? By incorporating the best practices across the entire lifecycle: from semiconductor design verification, SOC design services, SOC level verification, ASIC physical design services, board design services , embedded hardware design services, DFT design, RTL to GDSII and more. Let’s look at some of the major ASIC/FPGA/SOC design services that are enabling the industry to stay at the forefront:
1. ASIC Design: Customized for an intended use, ASIC chips today incorporate over millions of operations. As device sizes have shrunk and design tools have improved over the years, modern ASICs often include microprocessors, memory blocks and integrated circuits. Design services range from micro-architecture design, RTL coding, IP design, development and integration, functional verification and SoC integration. The design process usually comprises of a series of conceptual stages: requirement analysis, describing the ASIC, functional verification, logic synthesis, processing, and fabrication. Field proven design and verification IPs enable companies to ensure top-notch performance, reliability and manufacturability. Quick prototyping of multi-million ASICs into FPGA helps turn around proof-of-concept, facilitating quality ASIC solutions and low total cost of ownership.
2. FPGA Design: With the ability to be configured on field, FPGA circuits are designed using an HDL and contain an array of programmable logic blocks, in addition to a range of re-configurable connections that enable the blocks to be linked together based on the requirement. FPGA design encompass a variety of services: from feasibility study to architecture definition and design, RTL coding, functional verification, synthesis and optimization, floor planning and ASIC prototyping. System testing and verification constitute a major part of the FPGA design process and enable the design of high-speed protocols and interfaces. Hands-on experience on EDA tool chains from Cadence, Mentor Graphics, and Synopsys, and proficiency in FPGA devices from Microsemi, Altera and Xilinx act as key drivers in the ever dynamic industry.
3. SOC: SOCs integrate all components of an electronic system into a single chip. Comprising of analog, digital, and other radio-frequency functions, SOCs are popularly used in embedded systems due to their powerful processing capability and low power requirement and hence find major application in the electronics market. Typical SOCs contain a micro-controller or microprocessor, memory blocks, a timing device, external interfaces, and power management circuits. SOC design services include micro-architecture development, design implementation that includes RTL coding, synthesis, prototyping and verification. Expertise across verification disciplines like IP, Cluster, SoC, Formal, Low Power, Mixed signal, HW-SW co-simulation enable the tape out of multiple 16nm SOCs with 300–500 million gates, large die size with 200 Watts power consumption.
Transforming Industry Verticals
Using state-of-the-art and mature processes and checklists, companies today are able to execute complex projects in a variety of sectors such as networking, consumer devices, automotive, smartphones, multimedia, aerospace, servers, automated test equipment, and MEMS. Long standing experience and expertise in high-speed interfaces and protocol standards like NVMe, eMMC, DDR3/4, UFS, SONET NAND Flash, ONFI, SATA, and the LPDDRx family, USB2.0, USB3.0/3.1, USB PD, 10/40/100G Ethernet, MIPI, SerDes, PCI-E Gen 1/2/3 and FlexRay, CAN, ARINC-429, ARINC 429, ARINC 485, ARINC 664 (AFDX) act as key differentiators in the immensely competitive semiconductor industry. High quality design services IP & product led solutions are transforming various key industry verticals and technology domains including consumer electronics, avionics, networking, communication, storage, multimedia, automotive, and semiconductor.
