Loongson achieves first-pass silicon with Synopsys CustomSim circuit simulation solution

“The gigahertz clock speed and multicore architecture of the Loongson-3 CPU required precise timing and power simulation to verify its aggressive design targets,” said Dr. Hu WeiWu, principal scientist and program manager of the Loongson project. “Synopsys’ CustomSim circuit simulation technology delivered the highest accuracy and performance compared with the other simulators we evaluated. Using CustomSim, we significantly shortened the verification time for the complex custom blocks and achieved first-pass working silicon with 3x overall reduction in the full custom design cycle.”

The CustomSim solution unifies the best-in-class simulation technologies of NanoSim(R), HSIM(R) and XA with added multicore processing capabilities. For full-chip verification, the CustomSim solution is tightly coupled to the VCS(R) functional verification solution via a Direct Kernel Integration and is also combined with a unified analogue/mixed-signal (AMS) verification environment which simplifies usability through a common set of inputs, outputs and device models.

“Advanced processor design companies like Loongson need high performance and accurate simulation to meet competitive performance and power specifications,” said Farhad Hayat, senior director of marketing, analogue/mixed-signal group at Synopsys. “The robust simulation technologies and advanced analysis features in CustomSim enable our customers to realise tangible verification benefits for a wide range of custom and analogue/mixed-signal designs.”