Siemens EDA focus on chiplet-design kits (CDK), releases next-gen EDS

Siemens EDA has introduced the next-generation in electronic systems design (ESD) at the Siemens EDA PCB Forum 2024, Bangalore.

The goals are to keep pace with accelerating innovation, and speed up product delivery.
Electronic systems innovation is accelerating, and product release cycles are measured in months, and not years. Innovation, connectivity, emerging economies, and more consumer options, are driving product replacement and upgrade cycles.

Next-generation electronic systems design is AI-assisted, cloud connected, integrated, and intuitive, besides being secure. It helps accelerate digital transformation initiatives and AI/ML implementation. Next-generation ESD allows the unified user experience that combines cloud connectivity and AI capabilities to drive innovation in electronic systems design. We are transforming electronic systems design.

Elaborating on the next-generation electronic systems design announced, David Weins, Product Marketing Manager, Siemens EDA said: “We are announcing EDA software that has taken more than 800 engineer-years to develop. We also had a full year of beta cycles for customers to verify and trust the product. We have made it intuitive, AI-infused, cloud connected, integrated and secure. During the development of the next-generation solution, we still did two releases per year of core functionality for our customers. There are lots of tools to complete a typical process. We have streamlined the workflow across those tools to enable the engineers to get designs completed more efficiently.”

Ruchir Dixit, VP and Country Manager, Siemens EDA, added: “What we are releasing today has multiple engines. We are talking about re-architecting, building and testing the engines for schematic, layout, routing and analysis. Supply chain integrity is also maintained. It is highly complex and requires the hundreds of engineer years of effort.

Elaborating on Xpedition, Hyperlynx, and PADS Professional, Wein stated that Xpedition is flagship solution for electronic system design. It helps customers deal with product, organization, and process complexity. PADS Pro is for smaller teams that may be doing complex designs. HyperLynx does signal integrity, power integrity analysis, etc., and can check the electrical integrity of schematics and layouts. Innovator 3DIC was announced at DAC 24. It is for IC packaging solution,, and PCB design.

Chiplet design kits next
New EDA abstractions and capabilities are needed for wafer-scale chiplet-based advanced packaging systems. Dixit said that 3DIC and chiplets are very much in vogue. Interest in 3DIC is represented by discussions around IC packaging. Reality is: it takes much more than packaging. It takes an entire village. For a complete and robust ecosystem for 3DIC, there is a play for fabs / OSATs, universities, governments, standardization bodies, infrastructure, workflows and tooling.

For the ecosystem to be robust, there is a strong need for standardization. Bodies like JEDEC, IEEE, etc., are working to create standards around describing electrical, physical, geometrical, thermal, timing, test and several other characteristics. We believe in the concept of chiplet design kit (CDK) that contains standards-based models that designers can rely on, as they build their systems.

Needless to say, chiplet design kits are the next big hot development!