Cadence PCB success stories

Cadence is transforming the global electronics industry through a vision called EDA360. With an application-driven approach to design, our software, hardware, IP, and services help customers realize silicon, SoCs, and complete systems efficiently and profitably. www.cadence.com © 2012 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cadence, the Cadence logo, and Allegro are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All others are properties of their respective holders. 20395 02/12 MK / IW/ PDF The Solution When the engineers at IBM R&D Lab Germany learned that Cadence had developed an integrated solution that managed both tabular and schematic data in a full design and simulation environment, they adopted Cadence ® Allegro ® System Architect GXL. "Now we can use one design system globally to speed design iterations—even those spanning from the logical system design to the physical implementation of the system—with speed and accuracy. Allegro System Architect is the only product we have found that offers a totally integrated design system," explains Gisbert Thomke, PCB group leader at the IBM R&D Lab Germany. Speedy Input and Faster Compiles The primary reason the German IBM lab adopted the Cadence solution is that it enables designers to enter and manipulate signal specifications as easily as with an accounting spread- sheet. Design teams using the tabular input capability of Allegro System Architect can complete the input in one-tenth of the time required to work directly with schematics, and with fewer errors. Using this method, designers can also output charts and tables that provide much better analysis for constraint management. Thomke stresses the importance of this holistic approach: "This Cadence solution provides us with a far more comprehensive view of the system structure and greater visibility of the buses," he says. "It allows us to forecast the number of layers that will be required. This is critical for us, because we are working at the edge of what manufacturing can produce." Another major benefit of Allegro System Architect is that compiling the design code takes a fraction of time previously required for schematics. The German experts were typically dealing with compi- lation times in the 8 to 10 hour range, so compiling could only be performed once a day—usually overnight—and produced up to 400 pages of printout to check. Consequently, a simple typographic mistake could mean the loss of an entire day in the schedule. Now, using Allegro System Architect, the IBM development team can complete compilation in a matter of seconds. This speed enables engineers to perform incremental compiles for a smaller number of changes, providing quick detection of errors and radically increasing efficiency and productivity. Rapid compilations also translate into two additional benefits: 1) companies can meet or beat project schedules; and, 2) design teams can use the time gained to explore design alterna- tives, reducing the cost of experimentation and innovation, and resulting in the best-possible design. "We used to go through 40 to 50 design iterations over the entire development cycle," Thomke says. "Now we can run that many in a couple of days." Front-to-Back Design Environment The tabular input method is a good example of how the IBM lab continually develops a variety of methods to improve its design process. However, they quickly bumped up against the limitations of this innovation: analog signals still required schematic input, for example, so the two systems of input had to be merged by yet another process. Once the IBM R&D lab in Germany verified that Allegro System Architect GXL could meet all of its requirements in a single integrated software package from beginning to end, it adopted Cadence as its dedicated design platform for all PCB development. The integrated environment allows engineers to assess more quickly and easily how front-end definitions will affect back-end design issues. Overall, the improved entry, analytics, and integration have reduced the time required for PCB development by 80%. Summary and Future Plans With Cadence, IBM developed an integrated solution to manage both tabular and schematic data in a full design and simulation environment. The IBM R&D Lab Germany PCB group has used this new environment to develop several boards, including some very large designs with many wide buses using Allegro System Architect software. The German group's experience has been so positive that now other divisions of IBM around the world are also moving to Allegro System Architect for their PCB designs. Adoption of the new design environment was smooth thanks to FlowCAD, a Cadence Channel Partner, which provided valuable support to IBM R&D Lab Germany. "There was always a quick response from the FlowCAD engineers, and we had many very useful discussions that helped us to improve both our design and methodology," Thomke adds. "We are proud to be on the absolute leading edge of PCB technology in terms of size and complexity. And we are pleased that Cadence is there with solutions that give us the performance advantage to keep moving forward." The Cadence solution provides us with a far more comprehensive view of the system structure." "

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