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Frequently Asked Questions
What is PrimeTime PX?
Synopsys PrimeTime PX tool is the new power analysis eXtension to PrimeTime and PrimeTime SI that enables full-chip, concurrent timing, signal integrity, and power analysis in a single, easy-to-use environment. The PrimeTime PX solution is built on the industry’s de-facto golden timing standard and delivers high-accuracy dynamic and leakage power analysis while improving time-to-results and productivity compared to separate, standalone timing and power analysis tools.
Why is power analysis important? Why do I need PrimeTime PX?
Power management is a critical business and technical concern for the high growth mobile and wireless market segments. Soaring gate-counts and increasing complexities of advanced designs in these applications at 90- nanometers (nm) and below have brought power management to the forefront as a mainstream chip design challenge. Power management has become important towards achieving design success and is a key concern for chip designers. Power affects packaging decisions, form-factors, cooling requirements, battery life, design performance, and chip reliability. Chips have failed when power was not considered. More than ever, accurate power analysis is required to debug and reduce excessive power in today’s designs, and accurate analysis of power requires accurate timing and slew calculations. The PrimeTime PX solution delivers the most accurate power analysis because it is built on the industry’s de-facto golden timing standard – PrimeTime. With PrimeTime PX power analysis, the Galaxy™ Design Platform offers designers a unified analysis environment for timing, signal integrity, and power that is anchored by PrimeTime and provides designers with the highest productivity and a predictable path to silicon for their most complex designs.
What are the key benefits of using PrimeTime PX?
By combining timing, signal integrity and power analysis, designers now have a single tool that improves time-to-results (TTR) and productivity. With a single tool and environment, identical operations are not repeated. For example, timing and slew calculations as well as Netlist, parasitic and constraint file reads and tool setup steps are not repeated. As a result, PrimeTime PX delivers up to two times faster TTR over separate, standalone solutions. In addition, as an integral part of the PrimeTime environment, power analysis can be performed using the same PrimeTime commands, reports, attributes, and features. Designers can take advantage of useful PrimeTime features such as ‘Save and Restore’ and ‘What-if Analysis’. Furthermore, new features such as support for RTL VCD enable power analysis to be performed earlier in the design cycle.
How is PrimeTime PX different from other power analysis tools?
PrimeTime PX is the only power analysis tool available on the market that is built on the industry’s de-facto golden timing standard, PrimeTime, thereby offering the highest accuracy for power analysis. PrimeTime PX extends PrimeTime with power analysis technology from Synopsys’ PrimePower tool. This integration improves upon existing solutions by providing productivity and efficiency benefits that are not available with separate power analysis tools.
How is PrimeTime PX different from PrimePower?
PrimeTime PX extends PrimeTime with power analysis technology from PrimePower and offers numerous benefits over PrimePower. This integration into PrimeTime improves upon PrimePower by providing up to two times productivity and efficiency benefits not available with separate tools. In addition, new capabilities such as support for RTL VCD enable power analysis to be performed earlier in the design cycle.
Furthermore, PrimeTime PX is the new platform for power analysis in the Galaxy™ Design Platform. With PrimeTime PX, the Synopsys Galaxy Design Platform offers designers a unified analysis environment for timing, signal integrity and power which are required to address the interdependencies in today’s most complex designs
- What functionality is included in PrimeTime PX?
- There are many key features in PrimeTime PX. They include:
- Enables full-chip, concurrent timing, signal integrity, and power analysis
- Vector-free dynamic power analysis
- VCD-based or SAIF-based dynamic power analysis
- RTL or gate-level VCD and SAIF support
- Peak or average power analysis
- Clock tree power estimation
- Analysis of advanced low power design techniques: multi-voltage, MTCMOS
- What-if analysis
- PrimeTime flow and features
- Save and restore
- Mode/case analysis
- Support for industry-standard NLPM and CCS Power libraries
Power affects rail analysis. Does PrimeTime PX perform rail analysis?
Timing affects power, power affects rail (IR drop), IR drop affects timing. PrimeTime PX analyzes dynamic and leakage power. This power information is used by Synopsys’ rail analysis tool, PrimeRail, whose instance-specific voltage-drop output can be read into PrimeTime to calculate the effect of IR drop on timing. While PrimeTime PX does not explicitly perform rail analysis, it is an integral part of the rail analysis solution from Synopsys.
Does PrimeTime PX require Composite Current Source (CCS) Power libraries?
No. PrimeTime PX uses today’s NLPM (Non-Linear Power Model) libraries that are widely available. In addition, PrimeTime PX can also use CCS Power libraries, if available.
How is PrimeTime PX licensed?
PrimeTime PX is an add-on option to PrimeTime and uses the new “PrimeTime-PX” key. PrimeTime and PrimeTime SI users will need to purchase this add-on option to receive the “PrimeTime-PX” key that enables power analysis.
When will PrimeTime PX be available?
PrimeTime PX will ship as part of the Y-2006.06 release from Synopsys.
What will happen to PrimePower?
PrimeTime PX is the new platform for power analysis in the Galaxy Design Platform.
Synopsys plans to continue its support for PrimePower in near future, however, PrimeTime PX will be the tool of choice for future technology development. Synopsys will help the PrimePower customers upgrade to PrimeTime PX in the meanwhile.
Where do I go for more information?
A whitepaper and additional information on PrimeTime PX are available at the PrimeTime PX web site
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