( DAC 10 Item 3 ) ---------------------------------------------- [ 09/02/10 ]
Subject: Tuscany Pinpoint and Dorado Tweaker
CHANGE IS CONSTANT: I was curious to see how some users had simultanously
paired Tuscany Pinpoint, an EDA aware web-based status tool, and Dorado
Tweaker, a backend ECO tool, together as their most interesting tools at
this DAC. I guess the one thing constant in chip design is change.
"What were the 3 or 4 most INTERESTING specific tools that
you saw at DAC this year? WHY where they interesting to you?"
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1) Tuscany - web based block status gathering and summarizing.
2) Dorado Design Automation. Their booth was behind Synopsys booth.
I didn't get chance to talk to them a lot, but they provide some
solutions for ECOing the design. We could use that.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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Tuscany DA - The hot tool this year is a web based tool called Pinpoint
(formerly Dashboard) that works to facilitate collaboration between
frontend and backend designers, possibly in different locations.
Pinpoint can impose the critical timing path on the layout, etc. They
emphasize that it is good for really understanding how close the design
is from completion, since it can suck in timing, layout, DRC, and power
databases and allow the designer to visualize them all concurrently.
Dorado DA is a Taiwanese company that sells three tools for final ECOs.
Tweaker T1 fixes hold time violations, Tweaker M1 does metal changes for
remapping or buffer insertion with spare cells, etc. and Tweaker F1
inserts functional changes. They claim they minimize ECO changes, get
better timing and faster timing closure.
- John Weiland of Abraxas Corp.
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1. Our team desperately needs that Tuscany tool.
2. John, do you know if the Dorado SI tool is compatible with CeltIC?
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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1. Most interesting? I told my boss we should get Pinpoint ASAP. That
way he won't keep harassing our group for perpetual status updates.
2. Years ago we tried to get Synopsys to keep supporting ECO Compiler,
but they refused saying it didn't have enough users to be viable.
Instead we were told to improve our methodology flow such that an
ECO would just be another run of our "make" scripts. After that
Synopsys tried to sell us consulting combined with their Pilot
tool. (We refused.)
This time around we're VERY interested in Dorado Tweaker. I know
they're based in Taiwan. How stable are they? Who's their mgmnt?
Do you know of any user tape-outs with Tweaker? Does it support
a Magma flow? Does it support a Synopsys flow?
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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Tuscany Design Automation - Pinpoint
I was very interested in a product from Tuscany Design Automation called
Pinpoint. We are working on very big complex designs and managing all
the components during the backend design closure process is complex.
Pinpoint is the only SW commercially available, at lease as far as I
know, that helps consolidate the data that we are interested. It also
has a lot of capability to drill down into the design details if needed.
This tool looks like it can serve both the project manager's need for
summary data and the engineer's need for design data details.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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Tuscany Pinpoint - Tool to collect data throughout the course of a
design and visually view it. Allows you to compare metrics across
a single run and between multiple runs. Web-based GUI to allow timing
visualization of layout without bringing up layout tool (useful for
RTL designers to communicate with implementation guys).
Pinpoint is interesting to us given the number of chips we've got going
on. They appear to have a nice data management platform to help us make
sure all our projects are proceeding and to help us identify issues as
they pop up.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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1. Tuscany's Pinpoint was one of the newest tools to catch my eye.
Managing a development team that couldn't provide me with a standard
set of metrics to measure how close they were to done was a nightmare.
Here's a tool that looks like it provides the right set of insights
to help everyone see where the design is. We'll see...
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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2) Dorado Tweaker ECO: Wish I had seen the full booth demo, but I ran
out of time.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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Dorado has a suite of ECO related tools that are very useful. The
availability of an automated tool to handle ECO is missing from quite
a few of the major vendors in the current market.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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