2. Before We Start
q This webinar will be available afterwards at
www.designworldonline.com & email
q Q&A at the end of the presentation
q Hashtag for this webinar: #DWwebinar
5. What is the System Design Riddle?
How do I
complete my
design on-time?
On-budget?
With no
errors?
Then marketing says they need it…
Sooner
With higher performance
In less area
Sooner? Sorry, I meant early…
…maybe you can drop a feature?
6. What’s wrong? Waterfall Methodologies
• Sequential operations
o Little parallelism
• Changes in one phase may result in a reset
of all downstream steps
• While design reuse (and use of purchased
IP) is allowed, it cannot be fully exploited
• If one feature is causing a delay, it may be
impossible to move forward with the rest
of the design until it is resolved
• In general, the focus is on the process,
rather than the desired outcome
It’s easy to see the problems with the waterfall method.
It assumes that every requirement can be identified
before any design or coding occurs.
Specification
Prototype
Design
Simulation
Verification
Emulation
Physical Design
Software
7. Reasons for Changing IC Methodology
Desired new attributes
• Ability to make reasonable progress with
an incomplete specification
• To better solve modern design challenges:
o Time-to-market
o Power
o Security
• Ability to easily ship “on-time”/early with a
reduced feature set
• Improved relationship between
architectural, logical, physical, and
software design
Some drivers for change
• Consumer products
o Short release cycle
o Low power, but still always on
o Security
o Design costs
• IoT
o Starting design without a complete spec
• Makimoto’s wave shifts emphasis from
standardization to customization
• System companies are in best position to
assume product risk
8. Why is Sonics leading this?
Percent of Reuse Percent of Reuse Avg. Number of IP Blocks
0%
0
20%
50
40%
100
60%
150
80%
200
100%
250
10%
30%
50%
70%
90%
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014*
2015*
2016*
2017*
2018*
Avg, Number of IP Blocks
Source: Semico Research Corp.
9. Why is Sonics leading this?
$120
$100
$80
$60
$40
$20
$0
$70
$60
$50
$40
$30
$20
$10
$0
90nm 65nm 45nm / 40nm 32nm / 28nm 20nm 14nm* 10nm*
Total M Dollars
M Dollars Silicon IP Integration Cost Software IP Integration Cost Total IP Integration Cost
Source: Semico Research Corp.
10. SoC Architects Drive Both SW & HW
• Large (and growing) teams
dependent upon architecture
• SoC architect responsible for
many views of architecture
o Normally disparate
• Increasing complexity of SW
and HW results in increased
costs and delays
SW Development of HW-independent
HW
SW
Dev. of HW-dependent SW and
system architecture exploration
Performance analysis architecture
validation and
RTL verification and
implementation
11. Worth considering: Agile SW Development
• The Agile Manifesto was written in
February of 2001, at a summit of
seventeen independent-minded
practitioners of several programming
methodologies. The participants didn't
agree about much, but they found
consensus around four main values:
o Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
o Working software over
comprehensive documentation
o Customer collaboration over
contract negotiation
o Responding to change over
following a plan
Requirements
Architecture &
Design
Development
Test &
Feedback
“The Agile movement proposes alternatives to traditional project management. Agile approaches
are typically used in software development to help businesses respond to unpredictability.”
12. HW and IC Design Teams Must Evolve
Yesterday Tomorrow
Component-Level Aggregation System-Level Architecture
One-time Usage Platform Reuse
Hierarchical Requirements and Stepwise
Design Management
Concurrent Engineering and
Agile IC Methodology
Dedicated Resources Shared Resources
13. What an Agile IC Methodology Might Look Like
Specification
Prototype
Design
Simulation
Verification
Emulation
Physical Design
Waterfall
Time
14. What an Agile IC Methodology Might Look Like
Specification
Prototype
Design
Simulation
Verification
Emulation
Physical Design
Agile IC
Methodology
Time
Change the slope! The
more vertical the
better!
15. How Sonics helps
• Sonics’ on-chip networks help leading SoC designers solve some of the most difficult
challenges in SoC design
IP Integration
High Frequency
Memory Throughput
Physical Design
Power Management
Security
Time-to-market
• Sonics System IP: On-chip Networks, Memory Subsystem, Power Partitioning &
Management, Performance Monitor & Debug, Security Firewalls
Development costs
13 3 MHz 106 MHz 53 MHz
Cortex-
A15
Cluster
Cortex-
A7
Cluster
Mali-
T658
Cluster
CCI-40
267 MHz 13 MHz 267 MHz 267 MHz
Video
Engine
Video
Encode
Cam
1
Cam
2
DMA
Display
Ctrl.
USB
1
USB
2
On-die
SRAM
DRAM
Ch. 1
DRAM
Ch. 2
USB
3
USB
OTG
E-net
Audio
HDMI
32 64 32 64
SATA UFS
SD/
CF/
MMC
J
3x1
PCIe HSI
On-die
Peripherals ROM
A
2x2
G
4x1
F
4x1
E
4x1
H
5x2
C
2x3
Security
Engine
M M M M
S M M M M M M M M
S
64
M M M M M M M
S S
B
2x3
S S
M S
128 128
128
32
T
128
T
128
T
64
T
I T I I I I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
T I I I I I I I
64
64
64
64
53 MHz
32 32 32 32 64 64 64 64
267 MHz
64
64
64
20 MHz 20 MHz 40 MHz 13 MHz 13 MHz 13 MHz 13 MHz
267 MHz 13 MHz 267 MHz 13 MHz 13 MHz 13 MHz 13 MHz
13 MHz 13 MHz 53 MHz 53 MHz 53 MHz
D R3
213
D R3
213
IP
Control
S
32
T
13 MHz
M
128
I
D
1x3
I
4x1
T
Power Domain
Boundary
SonicsGN
Request
Network
16. Sonics – The NoC Leader for 18 Years
• Sonics enables designers to integrate any
IP from anywhere, anytime
o Easy IP re-use
o Connecting third party IP/subsystems
• Total System IP approach:
o Intelligent memory scheduling
o Optimal power-aware designs
o Data flow services: QoS, Security firewalls
o Software drivers
• Commanding presence in digital
entertainment, mobile and wireless
o 200+ SoC tape-outs
• Results: 2.5B+ units shipped
o 138+ patent properties
o Improved TTM and quality
17. Does Sonics Solve the
Riddle?
• No, not entirely
o Using Sonics and other high-quality IP will aid greatly
o But there are limitations that good IP alone doesn’t
solve
• Your design methodology is probably wrong,
though it may be the best you can do today
18. Short term actions
How you can help
• Join the LinkedIn group
• Participate in the
conversation
• Invite others to get involved
too
Sonics’ Plan
• Get the discussion started
• Create the communications
links
• Gather the interested parties
Step 1: Join the “Agile IC Methodology” group on LinkedIn
Step 2: Join the conversation – participate!
19. Agile IC Methodology
Progress
• Group went live on October 1, 2014…
o +280 members joined
o +50 different companies represented in the group
o 20 discussions threads
• Don’t miss out! Join Agile IC Methodology group today!
20. Questions?
Aimee Kalnoskas
Design World/EE
akalnoskas@wtwhmedia.com
Randy Smith
Sonics Inc
randy@sonicsinc.com
21. Thank You
q This webinar will be available at
designworldonline.com & email
q Tweet with hashtag #DWwebinar
q Connect with Design World
q Discuss this on EngineeringExchange.com
