A brief primer on EDA’s function in IC design

Analysts estimate that the worldwide marketplace for semiconductors will exceed $600 billion in 2025 and hit the $1 trillion mark by 2030, suggesting a CAGR of over 8%. It’s no shock that the drivers behind this progress embrace the semiconductor gadgets and techniques wanted to help the quickly rising segments like synthetic intelligence (AI), automotive industries (autonomous driving and EVs), information facilities and cloud computing, communications, and shopper electronics.

Digital design automation (EDA) performs a essential function within the progress of the worldwide semiconductor trade. But it’s comparatively unknown outdoors of those that take part straight within the trade. As a way to perceive the worth of EDA, it helps to understand the place EDA matches inside the semiconductor provide chain.

Semiconductor worth chain

The semiconductor provide chain is each advanced and globally distributed. If we take into account the portion of the provision chain from design by means of completed semiconductor merchandise—packaged chips and techniques, for instance—it contains the components proven beneath.

Determine 1 The semiconductor provide chain encompasses product specification, chip design and verification, manufacturing and meeting, and take a look at and packaging. Supply: Bob Smith

Semiconductor corporations are the first customers of EDA instruments required for designing chips that will comprise upward of billions of transistors. Along with EDA instruments, these corporations additionally use semiconductor mental property (IP) blocks which can be pre-designed and characterised purposeful blocks to assist simplify the design course of.

The start of the method that feeds the provision chain is the event of recent chip designs. Main into design is the upfront planning, together with assessing the goal market(s) and market timing necessities—each too early and too late have to be prevented—and purposeful and efficiency traits. As soon as the plan is in place, the chip design course of begins.

Chip design is a posh course of that begins with architectural planning and detailed specs on chip performance and efficiency (Determine 2). The subsequent steps take the design by means of totally different ranges of abstraction and verification. All of the blocks within the diagram are served by EDA distributors offering many various EDA merchandise.

Determine 2 Chip design and verification are advanced and require a number of steps earlier than the design could be handed off to manufacturing. Supply: Bob Smith

Register switch stage (RTL) design creates a software program mannequin of the chip utilizing a {hardware} description language (HDL) akin to Verilog or VHDL. This design should then be rigorously verified utilizing a simulator, and in some circumstances, using hardware-assisted verification often known as {hardware} emulators or FPGA prototypes. As soon as the software-based design is verified, the subsequent step is one other transformation.

Synthesis takes the RTL software program design and transforms it right into a logic-level netlist. The netlist is a set of logical elements and blocks interconnected to type the circuitry that may carry out the chip’s capabilities. Extra verifications steps are carried out after synthesis to make sure that the netlist works as anticipated.

As soon as the netlist is verified, the subsequent step is the creation of the particular bodily geometries used to outline the constructions (transistors) and interconnects (wires) that can be manufactured. This step is known as place and route. “Place” refers to finding the purposeful blocks on the chip and “route” speaks to producing the wires that interconnect the blocks.

Bodily design is adopted by exhaustive verification steps that embrace checking performance and timing. Different checks akin to energy and thermal integrity and design and electrical rule checking assess that necessities for the goal semiconductor course of have been met. These verification steps are the “gatekeepers” that have to be glad earlier than the design could be launched to manufacturing.

The manufacturing trade contains suppliers of the gear and supplies which can be used to fabricate semiconductor chips. As soon as manufactured, the fabricated chips are handed off to corporations specializing in the subsequent step of meeting, take a look at, and packaging.

On this last step earlier than the chips could be delivered to market, these corporations take a look at the chips after which assemble them into packages. The packaged chips then head to distribution channels that finally ship the chips to product producers to assemble into their merchandise.

The worth of EDA

The full income contribution of those segments of the provision chain in 2024 was roughly $420 billion. On this identical interval, the EDA section generated about $20 billion or ~ 5% of the whole income. Whereas this seems like a small piece of the puzzle, the worth of EDA goes far past what income numbers convey.

The place is that this “unseen” worth in EDA coming from? The reply lies within the complexities of the design course of itself, and the driving must sustain with the competitors.

Fashionable chip design is each advanced and difficult. Essentially the most refined chips might comprise tens of billions of transistors—far past the realm of unaided handbook design.

Furthermore, time to market is the whole lot within the extremely aggressive market. The flexibility to design and ship a brand new chip to deal with a market want on time and with the options that may guarantee success ultimately market is a frightening activity. Design groups spend money on the EDA and verification instruments that assist them optimize these tradeoffs.

The price of designing and verifying a modern chip could be within the tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to go from idea to design completion and launch to manufacturing. A design flaw or late supply can imply the top of a promising new chip and result in tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} or extra in unrecoverable prices. Failure will not be an choice.

EDA instruments are the engines that drive the design course of and permit semiconductor producers to fulfill ever-shrinking market home windows. The EDA instruments themselves and the methodology and flows (“recipes”) that every firm develops round them are thought to be extremely precious commerce secrets and techniques.

Whereas time to market is on the high of the record, there are different issues that EDA instruments additionally deal with. These can embrace product security, product lifecycle and suitability for specialised functions for markets akin to automobiles, medical gadgets, and protection and aerospace. All these necessities mandate refined design and verification instruments that may be utilized to make sure designs meet these wants—and ship on time.

EDA performs one other precious function within the chain as a key driver in bringing new course of applied sciences to market. Growth of recent semiconductor processes depends on tight partnerships between the method builders and the EDA corporations.

It’s costly to deliver a brand new course of to the purpose the place it has been characterised and dialed-in in order that it might ship the yield and efficiency that potential prospects will demand. However to have the ability to settle for designs, semiconductor manufacturing should be capable of help the purchasers with verified EDA instruments and flows that may help the brand new know-how. No instrument help, no prospects.

Semiconductor design is on the entrance finish of the provision chain and the EDA trade gives the instruments which can be important for turning out right this moment’s advanced chip designs. With out availability of those design automation instruments, the brand new improvements and merchandise that drive the worldwide semiconductor trade ahead would come to a screeching halt and the provision chain would wither and atrophy.

Worth past licensing payment

The insatiable demand for brand new merchandise from the electronics trade retains intense strain on the semiconductor producers to ship the longer term. In flip, this calls for that the EDA trade frequently ship new instruments, applied sciences and performance that help the continued transfer to the longer term. Merely mentioned, there can be no new merchandise or progress within the world electronics market with out EDA. Measuring the EDA market solely on income contribution vastly understates the worth that EDA delivers to the worldwide semiconductor trade.

The final word worth that the EDA trade delivers to the worldwide semiconductor trade is sort of incalculable. Definitely, it’s far past the licensing and upkeep revenues that the trade generates.

Robert (Bob) Smith is govt director of the ESD Alliance, a SEMI know-how group, representing members within the digital system and semiconductor design ecosystem liable for its administration and operations.