What is nanometer scale design?

Nanometer scale design is complex hierarchical design, which begins at 130 nanometer process. Simply put, it is design on silicon with wires the width of a single hair.

In order to achieve effective and reliable IC implementation for the 90nanometer process and beyond, it is essential to ensure the efficiency of the wires that connect the multiple gates on the board. Implementing nanometer-scale IC design begins and ends with the wires. So dominant a role do wires play that little is known of design performance or manufacturability without them.

Nanometer strategies not clearly focused on rapid wire creation, optimisation and analysis, are destined to fail. Continuous convergence methodology has proven highly valuable at 130 nanometers, and will be absolutely necessary at 90 nanometers.

In addition to dominating the overall delay on the IC, nanometer design worsens certain physical effects such as, signal integrity and voltage drop, introducing further delays. The effects can be considerable, as timing analysis tools miss a number of signal integrity and voltage drop-based defects. These effects are increasingly difficult to predict.

Design teams continue to use very simple delay calculations resulting in reduced performance due to high margins and excessive, time-consuming design iterations. At 90 nanometers, timing analysis that excludes signal integrity and voltage drop effects is meaningless.

Continuous convergence meets the requirements of successful nanometer design methodologies to minimise time to-wire and full-chip iteration time. Tams using continuous convergence often standardize on a single day turnaround, essentially performing a virtual tapeout every day. With this, the team sees a measurable and systematic progress toward the silicon closure and final tapeout.

Nanometer tools will also need to have enormous performance and capacity compared to current standards. Continuous convergence is a proven methodology that minimises both time-towires and full chip iterations. With nanometer design placing extraordinary demands on design teams, use of continuous convergence will ensure a predictable success of the team.

Tags: Nanometer, IC implementation, 90nanometer, signal integrity, voltage drop, nanometer design methodologies, what is nanometer, nanometer definition, 45 nanometer, 100 nanometers, 400 nanometers, 500 nanometers, 600 nanometers, nanometer scale, angstrom nanometer, 32 nanometer,