New Mentor Symphony platform addresses nanometer-scale SoC mixed-signal verification challenges

WILSONVILLE, Ore., Nov. 7, 2018 -- Mentor, a Siemens business, today announced the availability of the Symphony Mixed-Signal Platform, which combines the leading foundry-certified Analog FastSPICE (AFS™) circuit simulator with industry-standard HDL simulators to provide fast and accurate verification of complex nanometer-scale mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs). Offering an intuitive use model and complete reusability of existing verification infrastructure, Symphony delivers up to 5X productivity improvements in mixed-signal verification over traditional flows.

Systems on Chips (SoCs) used in high-performance computing, Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive applications have multiple high-performance, low-noise mixed-signal interfaces. A versatile mixed-signal verification platform is needed to help designers verify connectivity, functionality and performance across mixed-signal circuitry on the chip, which in turn drives a very large number of mixed-signal simulations at the block and top levels. Mixed-signal simulation solutions must be fast, accurate, easy to use and seamlessly integrated into existing analog and digital verification flows to meet time-to-market requirements.

Underscoring Siemens' continued commitment to invest for EDA leadership, Mentor's Symphony Platform is built from the ground up to solve these complex mixed-signal verification challenges. Symphony's modular architecture leverages Mentor's AFS circuit simulator to provide exceptionally fast mixed-signal simulation performance with nanometer-scale SPICE accuracy and compatibility with all leading digital solvers, including Mentor's Questa® functional verification tool family.

"IDT is standardizing on Symphony because our timing products require high accuracy verification for high-speed phase-locked loops that combine digital calibration blocks with analog functionality," said Brian Buell, design director at IDT. "Using Mentor's Symphony Mixed-Signal Platform, we are able to efficiently run several test benches to validate the digital calibration of our phase-locked loops with 3X performance improvement over our previous solution. Symphony has significantly improved our verification productivity through its intuitive setup, use model and excellent debugging capabilities."

Symphony allows users to remain in their existing use model and maximize reuse of their existing verification infrastructure, including test benches, encrypted IP blocks, and digital/analog netlists. Symphony's accuracy, performance and intuitive use model, coupled with powerful debugging capabilities and extensive boundary element and configuration support, enable a broad range of verification capabilities including connectivity and functionality checks, as well as mixed-signal IP characterization across A/D subsystems.

"To ensure first-time, full-specification compliance of our touch and proximity sensor ICs, we need to run full-chip simulations with high accuracy. Running these simulations at transistor level is prohibitively slow with unacceptable turnaround times in the range of several days," said Rémi Le Révérend, design director for Sensing Solutions group at Semtech, a leading IC provider for touch and proximity sensing applications. "Using Mentor's Symphony Mixed-Signal Platform, we were able to complete these simulations in a few hours with the same results as the full transistor-level simulations. Symphony's simple use model and the ability to plug seamlessly into our verification flow boosted our productivity significantly. We will continue to address our verification challenges with Symphony."

"Our customers require significant productivity improvements to their existing mixed-signal verification flows," said Ravi Subramanian, general manager and vice president of Mentor's IC Verification Solutions. "With Symphony, we are proud to deliver another key capability for our analog/mixed-signal verification portfolio that enables our customers to access high-performance nanometer-scale, SPICE-accurate mixed-signal verification capabilities in a simple and compelling use-model that will enable them to deliver superior products to market significantly faster."

For more information about the Symphony Mixed-Signal Platform, please visit http://go.mentor.com/53HNe or contact your local Mentor account representative.

Mentor Graphics Corporation, a Siemens business, is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products, consulting services, and award-winning support for the world's most successful electronic, semiconductor, and systems companies. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. Web site: http://www.mentor.com.