Wouldn’t it be nice if your static timing tool had the ability to give you results with the accuracy of SPICE, handled variation, and still ran really fast?
We’ve just introduced something that does just that. Amber Path FX is a new take on statistical STA. It’s the first practical tool for getting SPICE accurate timing results at 40nm and below. It’s not quite report_timing -with_spice_accuracy -and_statistical -fast, but it’s close.
What did we do differently than everyone else?
Well, first, we decided that rather than trying to replace your static timing environment we’d simply enhance it. You still run PrimeTime (or whatever) to find your critical paths.
Then you source a simple Tcl script and run an extra command – still within your STA flow. The new command passes the critical paths to Amber Path FX for a detailed analysis. Once the analysis is complete you get SDF and timing reports that reflect the new, more accurate delays.
Second, we use a fast transistor level model of the cells used in your design and do a novel statistical analysis on each path. This is like running Monte Carlo SPICE on all your critical paths without the hassle of setting up the SPICE simulations.
Finally, we do all of this using our fast, multi-threaded, static timing engine, so that we can handle hundreds of thousands of paths per hour. Monte Carlo SPICE is accurate but it isn’t practical for more than a handful of critical paths. With Amber Path FX you can pick out thousands or even hundreds of thousands of paths to look at.
We invite you to check out more of Amber Path FX at clkda.com and download a free evaluation.
