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annotating switching activity

alexsieh

Dear fellows,

 Please shine some light in how I should annotate switching activity with TCF properly.

I used "dumptcf -internal" to create a tcf file from my testbench simulation. I did not set any scope, so the tcf file annotates all of the switching activites of my DUT and of my testbench. Thats ok rite? I am assuming the RTL Compiler will ignore the switching activity recorded from my testbench and use only the numbers regarding the DUT instances. After I read the tcf file in RC and synthesize my DUT, I noticed that in the power report, some negative numbers came out.

Question1. Why does Cadence allow negative dynamic power in its report? Does it make sense?

Then, I generated tcf files using "dumptcf -internal -scope .." to each hierachical instance of my DUT. In RC, I performed multiple commands "read_tcf ...", but the numbers do not add to what the non-scoped tcf file first gave me. The power analysis came out to be much lower even though I read the tcf files of each DUT instance.

Question2. Can i have RTL Compiler make multiple tcf reads? Does it override the previous read tcf?

Hope yall can help me! Sincerely,

Alex

Parents
  • alexsieh
    Hello everyone,

    I have 100% coverage on sequential outputs, so I am on the right track.
    I also upgraded RC to the lastest version and the TCF net coverage went up as well.
    Thank you for your answers. I really appreciate every input.

    A quick RC question please.
    If I use a different process technology, will the RC area report change in terms of GEs?

    For instance, if I use the same RTL code, the same constraints (same clock), but use another process tech, will the number of cells (GEs) change?

    I cannot verify this on my own through RC report, because I don't have the new process tech library.
    We are still investigating about adopting a newer process technology. I am guessing the circuit will be synthesized basically in the same way since I have the same constraints. So the number of cells ought to be closely the same.

    Thanks & Regards,
    Alexander Sieh
Reply
  • alexsieh
    Hello everyone,

    I have 100% coverage on sequential outputs, so I am on the right track.
    I also upgraded RC to the lastest version and the TCF net coverage went up as well.
    Thank you for your answers. I really appreciate every input.

    A quick RC question please.
    If I use a different process technology, will the RC area report change in terms of GEs?

    For instance, if I use the same RTL code, the same constraints (same clock), but use another process tech, will the number of cells (GEs) change?

    I cannot verify this on my own through RC report, because I don't have the new process tech library.
    We are still investigating about adopting a newer process technology. I am guessing the circuit will be synthesized basically in the same way since I have the same constraints. So the number of cells ought to be closely the same.

    Thanks & Regards,
    Alexander Sieh
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