( ESNUG 503 Item 2 ) -------------------------------------------- [05/04/12]
From: Mike Gianfagna <mikeg=user domain=atrenta not calm>
Subject: Atrenta says its unfair to be compared on 2 year old tool data
Hi, John,
A number of your readers have rallied to the call for information on RTL
power tools originally inspired by [ Puss in Boots ] in this post:
> We would like to have some user perspective on RTL-level power analysis
> and optimization. Specifically Apache PowerArtist/PowerArtistXP and
> Atrenta Spyglass Power. We are seriously considering using one in our
> next design.
>
> - [ Puss in Boots ]
> http://www.deepchip.com/items/0495-07.html
There has been good, relevant and recent information posted as a result
of that call. But then I read a post from [ Elvis ] on April 19
explaining, in great detail, "Why we switched from Atrenta Spyglass Power
to Apache PowerArtist". His post starts saying they switched 2 years ago.
> We initially used Atrenta Spyglass Power, but after 1 year, we switched
> over to Apache PowerArtist; which we've been using for 2 years now.
>
> - [ Elvis Has Left The Building ]
> http://www.deepchip.com/items/0502-02.html
Two years ago? Really? Is 2 year old competitive information useful to
anyone? Maybe to Apache as a blunt marketing tool I suppose. The rest of
us know that EDA product development happens at a fairly fast pace. Data
gets stale fast, and 2 year old data is, well, very stale.
There are many statements in [ Elvis ]'s post that are simply not true
today. Here are a few:
> SpyGlass Power's lack of GUI and TCL support made it difficult to further
> probe to see where things were going awry.
Regarding the GUI - we've developed a new GUI called Atrenta Console. It's
been out for quite a while now (well over a year). It supports intuitive,
user-guided debug across all SpyGlass products (DFT, CDC, lint, constraints,
as well as power).
This new Spyglass interface has become so popular that we're in the final
stages of end-of-life for our prior GUI. Your own DeepChip readers have
commented on this:
"We also use Spyglass Lint and CDC. Our designers are already
familiar with the common GUI and design setup, so it was easy
to add Spyglass Power for early power estimation."
- from http://www.deepchip.com/items/0501-04.html
> Even after talking to Atrenta R&D and architects for tool enhancements,
> support for a Tcl power interface was more than a year-and-a-half away.
More bad data. We announced Tcl support almost a year ago. It works now.
> When we did correlation studies, both tools were within about 20% of
> the post-layout gate-level netlist estimate.
More bad data. SpyGlass now does 2X better than this. Again your DeepChip
reader confirmed it:
"SpyGlass RTL Power correlated within 10% when comparing with final
silicon power numbers."
- from http://www.deepchip.com/items/0500-04.html
> PowerArtist supports Synopsys Design Compiler enhanced clock gating (ECG)
> and enable factoring... We didn't address this topic with Spyglass but
> I'm pretty sure they don't support ECG.
More bad data. Enable factoring/weak enable detection is supported in
SpyGlass since last year. I should also mention that SpyGlass does real
synthesis and performs technology mapping. So, you can see real gates
and ICGC cells rather than basic pseudo macros.
I hope your readers find this more current Spyglass information useful.
- Mike Gianfagna
Atrenta, Inc. San Jose, CA
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