This publish was co-authored by Giancarlo DiPasquale, Microsoft Director, Semiconductor & EDA; Rajat Chaudhry, Product Administration Director, Cadence; and Adrian Lao, Senior Software program Architect, Cadence.
With the appearance of AI and hyperscale designs on superior nodes, it’s common to see designs in over 50 billion transistor classes with tens to 100 billion plus nodes within the on-chip energy community. This explosion in scale requires options that meet the next necessities:
- Excessive efficiency and capability.
- Elasticity.
- Handle various compute useful resource necessities.
- Low value to handle the exponential enhance in compute necessities.
Voltus on Azure
Voltus is a number one IC Energy Integrity Signoff Resolution from Cadence Design Programs. It’s utilized by high chip design firms to confirm the reliability of their energy networks on chip (NoC) and allows energy integrity and thermal evaluation on the system degree.
Microsoft Azure supplies a cloud-based high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure with safety, reliability, and scalability that could be a pure match for digital design automation (EDA) workloads, particularly energy integrity evaluation.
Azure can help each a hybrid mannequin in addition to an all-in mannequin. Within the hybrid mannequin prospects primarily use their on-premises infrastructure however can add to their compute and storage capability on an on-demand foundation to fulfill peak demand. The hybrid strategy is often utilized by prospects new to utilizing the cloud. In an all-in mannequin, prospects primarily use Azure infrastructure for all their EDA workloads. The all-in mannequin is a good use case for startups and prospects who actually need to optimize their prices whereas profiting from the size and adaptability of Azure. Voltus helps each the hybrid in addition to the all-in mannequin with Azure.
Managing variable compute prices by the design cycle
Utilizing Azure will help prospects optimize their prices as compute necessities will range by the design cycle with decrease necessities early on and peak demand close to signoff. That is in distinction to the excessive mounted value of on-premises infrastructure.
Working Voltus on Azure
We’ve got used a block and full Chip check case to exhibit our outcomes.
The Azure crew chosen Edsv4 digital machines (VMs) based mostly on second-generation Intel Xeon Platinum 8272CL (Cascade Lake). These VMs are properly suited to each compute and memory-intensive workloads.
The Voltus use case setup on Azure is illustrated in Determine 1.
Determine 1
Excessive efficiency and elasticity
Voltus has a completely distributed and scalable structure. Each step of the facility integrity evaluation movement, from design parsing to the solver, is totally distributed and scalable. Information from every a part of the robotically partitioned design is assigned to compute nodes on the compute infrastructure for numerous steps within the evaluation. This course of is managed by a grasp machine as illustrated in Determine 2.
Determine 2
The extent of distribution is user-controlled, which permits the person to reap the benefits of compute elasticity and handle efficiency. As Determine 3 illustrates for each the block and full chip run, we observe near-linear scalability in efficiency with respect to the variety of CPUs.
Determine 3
Greater efficiency with decrease prices
Imagine it or not, that’s certainly true. The elasticity of Voltus structure allows the device to run quicker with a better variety of CPUs and for the reason that CPUs are used for a smaller period of time, the result’s that the overall value drops to an optimum level. This may be seen at each the block and full chip ranges as illustrated in Determine 3. This can be a win-win state of affairs the place you possibly can enhance your efficiency and cut back your prices.
Determine 4
The magic of Voltus hierarchical evaluation
Designers can additional enhance their efficiency and cut back value through the use of Voltus XM hierarchical evaluation. With Voltus XM, block-level fashions can be utilized as an alternative of the total flattened design as illustrated in Determine 5. This methodology considerably reduces node rely whereas sustaining accuracy. We are able to even additional cut back our runtime and prices with Voltus XM and Azure. We observe a 4.5x discount in value and a 2x enchancment in efficiency over the flat run for the total chip check case (Determine 6).
Determine 5
Determine 6
We’ve got demonstrated the good thing about utilizing Voltus on Azure at each the block degree and chip degree. These benchmarks present that prospects cannot solely simply profit from larger efficiency utilizing elastic compute, however there may be an optimum level for efficiency and price. Utilizing Voltus XM hierarchical evaluation additional improves value and efficiency. With Voltus on Azure, semiconductor firms have the perfect resolution to confirm energy integrity for his or her most advanced designs.
Study extra about Voltus on Azure
Please contact your Cadence gross sales consultant for assist enabling Voltus on Azure.
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