From EDA to SDA – The Emergence of Intelligent System Design Automation

Technology innovation is continually transforming our user experience and disrupting the status quo. While much of the focus of technology disruption is on supply chains and business models, there is an underlying revolution happening in the design of electronics systems. No longer can components be designed in isolation and integrated by systems engineers. The demand for more functionality, more performance, smaller form factor, lower power, higher reliability, and longer resiliency necessitate the co-design and co-optimization of every component in an electronics system and every aspect of the physical nature of the system.

The design realm of electronic design and mechanical design are intermingling, converging, and transforming into a new discipline. Formerly disparate analysis of rotational and airflow dynamics is interdependent with mechanical friction and heat, the operation of electronic circuits, and their reliable performance under extreme operating conditions. And vice versa, the function-dependent electronics operations that generate exhibit varying heat profiles can influence the mechanical reliability of the system.

To address these requirements, electronic design automation (EDA) solutions must be expanded in scope to what can be called intelligent system design automation (SDA). The computational software that underpins EDA is already solving much bigger computational challenges than system simulations, measured in billions of transistors versus millions of mesh cells. Initial SDA technologies are demonstrating performance that is orders of magnitude bigger and faster than legacy simulation engines. These innovations are enabling a revolution of system design and reducing project schedules with optimized continuous integration.

We at Cadence aim to expand our expertise from EDA to Intelligent System Design Automation, enabling our users to analyze the interaction of the chips embedded in a device with the other components of the system. It is our step to address issues that might arise from the component level and could, over a span of time, affect the system performance and accuracy. Our core competency has always been in developing computational software for design excellence and today with our latest innovations and acquisitions, we yearn to take our foot forward in analyzing a system through multiple domains using pervasive intelligence. We are confident that our computational technologies developed in the EDA sphere, over the past few decades can be readily applied to system domains and can further administer AI and machine learning technologies to those systems.

Multiphysics System Analysis

We have made tremendous progress in executing our Intelligent System Design strategy and our latest products and innovations in system analysis speak for themselves. Today, we are leading the convergence of three different spheres:  design, system, and intelligence. We have ample experience in the design sector, and we are applying our revolutionary technologies to the next sphere, which is system innovation. In the system layer, we are prompted to solve large-scale numerical problems and our computational technology in the EDA sphere can be used here. For example, the sparse matrix solver in the EDA domain can be borrowed for solving challenging system simulation problems within few hours. On top of the system layer, we have the pervasive intelligence layer. Here we ought to utilize the massive amount of data generated by systems to provide an even greater value to our customers.

In April 2019, we successfully launched our flagship product, Clarity 3D Solver, on the market, which is without any doubt, the leading finite element method (FEM)-based electromagnetic solver. It was initially introduced as a frequency-domain solver, but with the newly added transient solver in the Clarity suite, our customers can now enjoy both frequency and time domain solutions in EM analysis. The Clarity 3D Solver offers revolutionary meshing technology, which is fully distributed and highly reliable. It uses a massively parallelized matrix solver for near-linear scalability and accurate solutions. We also have the Sigrity X and EMX technologies leading the chip and module-level planar 3D EM analysis. Sigrity X allows PCB and IC package designers to incorporate end-to-end, multi-fabric, multi-board systems for SI/PI signoff success.

For electrothermal analysis, we have our winning combo of the Voltus IC Power Integrity Solution and the Celsius Thermal Solver. The solution from the power integrity analysis of the chips carried out on Voltus is fed into the Celsius to provide an accurate thermal analysis of the semiconductor packages. The Celsius Thermal Solver combines FEA technology from Clarity and CFD technologies to analyze both air flow and thermal aspects of electronic components

On the CFD front, we have a strong portfolio that includes our in-house Celsius Thermal Solver and our newly acquired Numeca and Pointwise CFD solutions. Numeca is a Belgium-based CFD technology that addresses both preprocessing and post-processing aspects of multiphysics simulations on an integrated platform. On the other hand, Pointwise is the industry-wide golden technology for meshing. We are proud to bring these two technologies to the table because the CFD market is getting bigger and we aim to bring our expertise in EDA technology to help in faster CFD simulations. Today, we see a lot of customers rely on CFD solutions for reduced testing costs and for a faster turnaround time. Millions of dollars usually spent on testing an aircraft using wind tunnels can be put into something more worthwhile.  It is not just about the money—from the design perspective, CFD analysis helps to predict possible flaws in the design before its production phase. Further, the inbuilt optimization algorithms help in the informed decision-making process.

With all these technologies on the table, we plan to integrate them onto a single platform which will provide a seamless system analysis experience for our customers. This will help in solving advanced multiphysics problems, which include both EDA and SDA. An electric car or an autonomous vehicle that is a part of our everyday life is a complex system with multiple subsystems or components that make up the system. In an electric car, the chips that drive the motor using electrochemical reactions in the batteries is one subsystem. Another subsystem is the battery thermal management system, which uses active or passive modes of cooling and appropriate battery structural casing and arrangement to avoid thermal runaway. [VVP1] The capacity to design in parallel and simulate the different physics involved in a system on a single platform with options for design optimization is a competitive system analysis solution that we offer.

10X Faster Solutions

In the current market, there is an increased demand for higher quality products, increased productivity, product optimization, and increased efficiency. These challenge designers to use AI and machine learning technologies for workflow automation and design optimization. To meet the current industry challenges, we have pushed our technology even further and are on the path to implementing AI and ML technologies to our products.

Our EM analysis software Sigrity has been modified to Sigrity X by using the massively distributed technology from our signature product Clarity. The fundamental technology change in Sigrity X in comparison to Sigrity is that we now use several hundreds of computing nodes to solve a complex problem and these computing nodes communicate with each other. This technology change has enabled 10X performance with an unlimited capacity. Constructive feedback from our customers has helped us in this transition from Sigrity to Sigrity X. Even our Celsius Thermal Solver provides 10X performance gains and virtually unlimited capacity through a massively parallel execution model.

Our seamless integration between local computing and cloud computing is our other tread towards a 10X faster solution. This on-premises cloud computing setup is now available for Clarity 3D Solver i.e., Clarity 3D Solver Cloud; and it provides flexible solutions depending on the business model. Our Omnis platform accelerates end-to-end workflows by reducing the time for complete CFD analysis from weeks to a few hours.  All these technologies that we have and the ones we are investing in are heading us towards a future where intelligence will automate system design and workflow.

Conclusion

Our team at Cadence has been working hard in turning the Intelligent System Design strategy into a reality. Today, with all the technologies—ranging from EM analysis software such as Clarity, Sigrity X, and EMX/ AXIEM, Voltus and Celsius for electrothermal solutions, and finally, Omnis and Pointwise solutions for CFD simulations—we have all that is substantial for multiphysics system analysis. Moreover, all these analyses can be carried out on a single platform using massively distributed computing technology for a 10X faster solution with unlimited capacity. Our cloud computing setup accelerates workflow automation for a faster solution to complex problems. Our recent investment in the two CFD technologies and other in-house system analysis innovations mark our shift from EDA to SDA.