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 | |  |  | | | | Interview with Cadence IC6.1 architect, Don O'Riordan
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. | |
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Q. Cadence has just announced the launch of the Virtuoso platform IC6.1. As the architect for this area, tell us about your background working with this technology.
A. Yikes. I’ve been involved in just about everything it seems. From initial architecture spec’ing, thru refinement, usability tests, digestion of usability test results, functional spec’ing, and finally getting product to a release ready state. All done with a renewed emphasis/spirit on "let’s do something big, something really different". Innovation coming together in one place at one time, and trying to figure out how to integrate them all. Quality, Performance, final polish kinds of issues these days. I’ve spent a lot of personal effort both driving usability and "tying things together" i.e. coordinating in this release also. Which was quite tough, given the sheer volume of innovation (and therefore change) coming together. Had to do it keeping back compatibility in mind, which is not exactly trivial…but we did a great job here also.
Q. In any new release there are a lot of new features that benefit users, but in your opinion, what is the one most important new feature to users of this product?
A. Unified Constraints! Technology-wise, it’s the tighter and formal links between front end and back end of the IC design process via the IC6.1 unified constraint system. IC6.1 contains far more intelligent tools, that are "constraint aware" or even constraint-driven. The tools can be taught about topologies, design style, and associated constraints (CAD guys will love the level of customization possible). This will eliminate much of the current wasteful dialog & arguments between front end circuit designers and back end mask layout designers. We’ve made a major jump with constraint aware analog placement, and this is only the beginning of what’s coming in the pipeline…that, plus it just plain looks and feels really good. A quantum leap in productivity + usability, and look & feel.
Q. Tell us how this feature works
A. The back end tools are significantly enhanced to honor various constraints, which can be formally specified in the front end. Examples may include symmetrical placement, or even module generation to generate tight and highly matched analog transistor layouts with local routing. As far as the front end user is concerned, he simply has to specify how tightly he needs his transistors to match…and this is automatically taken care of in the back end layout. For those front end designers who aren’t sure, or who don’t want to go to the effort of manually annotating the constraints onto the design, we’ve built an intelligent system that can learn from one design and apply those constraints to another subsequent design, thus taking us one step closer to the elusive goal of real (as opposed to theoretical) analog layout synthesis. Similar control of constrained routing is in the pipeline also, based on the same constraint infrastructure.
Q. Now tell us about a couple more features that users will find helpful in creating their designs.
A. Just about every user will love the usability enhancements and the new windows-like look & feel with docking window architecture. Some of the usability enhancements are quite simple in concept but extremely useful, such as caching the list of recently opened cellviews for a user in the File menu of the schematic and layout editors. When the user next re-invokes the software, he can just choose his cellview from the list of recently visit cellviews presented in the File menu…and it opens automatically. No need for slow browsing around with library managers etc. The ADE-XL product allows users to perform distributed circuit verifications over multiple corners, conditions etc, with multiple different testbenches, automatically generating spec-sheets from the results, and highly visible pass/fail indicators. During the process, a data log keeps track of the user’s operations/data, so that he can revert to prior snapshots, a feature that both allows for and promotes safe experimentation. The new text-based search and bookmarking mechanisms are very powerful and highly amenable to design data, and the new docked and compact property editor has proven to be a big hit during early usability testing, and really easy to use.
Q. Now some personal questions, Don, how do you concentrate when working? Any tricks?
For me, its regular exercise & regular breaks. Exercise keeps the mind & body healthy (though these days my body is having trouble keeping up). A regular break means you can keep the mind at peak operating condition. But then you have to be able to focus also. Tricks & Tips? Eliminate distractions. Turn off that annoying Outlook feature where every time you get a new email it pops up a message on your screen, distracting you from your current line of thought. I disabled that thing the first opportunity I got, and never missed it...
Q. Where do you do your best thinking?
Often, it’s out of the office. I spent a wonderful week on a windsurfing vacation in Mexico one time a couple of years back, in the middle of the wilderness. While waiting for waves and/or wind, there was a lot of time for thinking. I brought the Virtuoso Schematic Editor User manual with me….studied it, thought about it, and looked for analogies that could improve its user interface by comparing it with Web Browsers etc. Stuff that everybody knows. The results are clearly reflected in Virtuoso 6.1. Please tell my boss to send me off on more such vacations…..with the company paying this time!
Q. What do you do after a long day or week of working on Virtuoso to relieve stress?
Mostly, Exercise. Depending on the time of year, my chosen exercise varies a lot. In winter, I like to hit up Tahoe for some hardcore snowboarding. Kirkwood rocks. In summer, it’s windy here in the bay, and I go windsurfing. Totally addicted to that. In spring/fall, it’s a combo of indoor rock climbing, and Mountain biking. All can be considered "extreme sports". But in my opinion, they aren’t that extreme. You are in complete control at all times…have to be careful to push it a bit, but not too much. Needless to say, the concentration these sports require in order to avoid killing yourself provides a much needed diversion from thinking about work to give the brain a break. And to mellow out, I like cooking. Whether it's BBQ for my friends (hungry exercise addicts), or dinner for me + my girlfriend, I sure like to cook. Tongs in one hand, beer in the other.
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Don O'Riordan discusses what he believes is the one most important feature of the new Virtuoso release.
About the author
Don O'Riordan received his BE 1990, MS Eng Sc 1992, from NUI (National University of Ireland) and also has a Masters Thesis on Behavioral Simulation with Statistical Modeling/Yield Prediction.
Don worked at Silvaco for several years and is the author of SPAYN (Statistical Parameter and Yield Analysis) software for SPICE models. In his approximately 10 yrs at Cadence he has developed a deep simulation background + innovation in Cadence products, including Spectre/SpectreRF, Monte Carlo, Verilog-A/AMS, VHDL-AMS, HDL Debugging, plus strong Environment background including Schematic Entry + Constraints, Simulation Analysis Environments, and Virtuoso Platform Architecture.
Also developed the Key Driver of new Virtuoso GUI technology in IC6.1 release. In an attempt to get rich quick at a startup, spent 2 years at Transmeta, working on emulation and simulation farm full chip verification via Logic simulation + ISS (Instruction Set Simulator)
Don holds 2 patents, w/ 4 patents pending.
Personal interests include Windsurfing, Rock Climbing, Mountain Biking, Scuba Diving, Playing Guitar |
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