EDA tools are endless, and now into China and has a wide range of EDA software: multiSIM7 (the latest version of the original EWB), PSPICE, OrCAD, PCAD, Protel, Viewlogic, Mentor, Graphics, Synopsys, LSIIogic, Cadence, MicroSim and so on. These tools have a strong function, generally can be used in several ways, for example, many software can be circuit design and simulation, the same into the PCB can also be automatically laid out routing, can be exported to a variety of netlist files and third-party software interface.
(The following is the introduction of software on EDA, if you are interested, the old look at it ^ ^ ^ ^)
The following main function or the main application is divided into circuit design and simulation tools, PCB design software, IC design software, PLD design tools, and other EDA software, a brief introduction.
2.1 Electronic Circuit Design and Simulation Tools
All of us may have used test boards or other things to make some electronic manufacturing to practice. But sometimes, we will find that there are a lot of problems with the things we made, which we didn't think of beforehand, and this wastes a lot of our time and materials. And increase the product development cycle and the continuation of the product's time to market so that the product loses its competitive advantage in the market. Is there a way to know the result without using the soldering iron test board? The conclusion is that there is, this is circuit design and simulation technology.
Speaking of electronic circuit design and simulation tools this technology, we can not mention the United States, can not mention their aircraft design why there is a very high efficiency. Previously, our country finalized a medium-sized aircraft design, from the draft to the detailed design to the wind tunnel test and then to the final drawings to the actual production, the entire cycle of about 10 years. And the United States is 1 year. Why is there such a big gap? Because the United States in the design of most of the virtual simulation technology, the wind tunnel experimental parameters accumulated over the years are entered into the computer, and then programmed through the computer to write a virtual environment of the software, and so that it can automatically apply the relevant formulas and call the long-term accumulation of the relevant experience of the parameters entered into the computer. In this way, as long as the aircraft shape meter data into the virtual wind tunnel software for testing, where there are unreasonable problems will be changed there, until the best results, the efficiency is naturally high, and finally as long as a few times in the actual environment to find the shortcomings of the test can be finalized, from the Boeing 747 to the F16 are used in this way. The aerodynamic data is provided by senior experts, the software developer is IBM, and the aircraft design engineers simply use the simulation software to perform all kinds of simulation and debugging work on the computer platform. Likewise, many of their other things are using such a similar approach, from big to small, from complex to simple, even including designing furniture and composing music, just the specific software content is different. In fact, that's what they were aiming for when they invented the first generation of computers (back when it was for efficient design of cannons and related shells and other computationally-intensive designs).
Electronic circuit design and simulation tools include SPICE/PSPICE; multiSIM7; Matlab; SystemView; MMICAD LiveWire, Edison, Tina Pro Bright Spark, and others. The first three software are briefly described below.
①SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis): the University of California introduced by the United States circuit analysis and simulation software, is the world's most widely used circuit design software in the 1980s, was designated as the U.S. national standard in 1998. 1984, the U.S. MicroSim company launched a new software based on SPICE. In 1984, MicroSim introduced the microcomputer version of PSPICE (Personal-SPICE) based on SPICE. Now used more PSPICE6.2, it can be said that in similar products, it is the most powerful analog and digital circuits mixed simulation EDA software, commonly used in the country. The latest version of PSPICE9.1. It can carry out a variety of circuit simulation, excitation establishment, temperature and noise analysis, analog control, waveform output, data output, and in the same window at the same time to display analog and digital simulation results. No matter what kind of devices and circuits are simulated, accurate simulation results can be obtained, and components and component libraries can be built by yourself.
②multiSIM (the latest version of EWB) software: Interactive Image Technologies Ltd. launched the circuit simulation software in the late 20th century. The latest version of its multiSIM7, currently in common use is multiSIM2001, compared to other EDA software, it has a more visual and intuitive human-computer interface, especially its instrumentation library of the instruments and meters and the operation of real experiments in the actual instruments and meters are not at all the same, but it is a mixed analog-digital circuit simulation function is no less than almost 100% of the simulation of the real circuit. It can simulate 100% of real circuits, and it also provides multimeters, signal generators, wattmeters, dual-trace oscilloscopes (four-trace oscilloscopes for multiSIM7), baud meters (comparable to actual frequency sweeps), word signal generators, logic analyzers, logic converters, distortion analyzers, spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, and voltage and current meters and other instruments. ammeters and other instruments. It also provides a variety of modeling accurate components that we commonly see in our daily life, such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors, diodes, relays, SCRs, digital tubes, and so on. For analog integrated circuits there are various operational amplifiers, other commonly used integrated circuits. Digital circuits have 74 series integrated circuits, 4000 series integrated circuits, and so on, but also support for homemade components.MultiSIM7 also has an I-V analyzer (equivalent to the real environment of the transistor characteristics of the graphic display) and Agilent signal generator, Agilent multimeter, Agilent oscilloscope and dynamic logic flat pen. At the same time it can also perform VHDL simulation and Verilog HDL simulation.
③ MATLAB product family: one of their characteristics is that there are many application-specific toolboxes and simulation blocks, including a complete set of functions for image signal processing, control system design, neural networks and other special applications for analysis and design. The MATLAB product family provides the following functions: data analysis; numerical and symbolic computation, engineering and scientific drawing; control system design; digital image signal processing; financial engineering; modeling, simulation, prototyping; application development; graphical user interface design, etc. The MATLAB product family is widely used in signal and image processing. The MATLAB product family is widely used in signal and image processing, control system design, communication system simulation, and many other fields. The open structure of the MATLAB product family makes it easy to expand for specific needs, thus deepening the understanding of the problem and improving its competitiveness.
2.2 PCB Design Software
There are many types of PCB (Printed-Circuit Board) design software, such as Protel, OrCAD, Viewlogic, PowerPCB, Cadence PSD, Expedition of MentorGraphices, PCB, Zuken Cadition, and so on. PCB, Zuken CadStart, Winboard/Windraft/Ivex-SPICE, PCB Studio, TANGO, PCBWizard (with LiveWire supporting PCB production software package), ultiBOARD7 (with multiSIM2001 supporting PCB production software package) and so on. ) and so on.
Currently in our country with the most when it comes to Protel, the following is only an introduction to this software.
Protel is PROTEL (now Altium) company launched in the late 1980s CAD tools, PCB designers preferred software. It was used earlier in the country, the highest popularity, in many universities and colleges of circuitry also specializes in the opening of the Protel course, almost in the circuit company have to use it. Early Protel is mainly used as a printed circuit board automatic wiring tools, the latest version of its Protel DXP, now commonly used is Protel99SE, which is a complete all-round circuit design system, including electrical schematic drawing, analog circuits and digital circuits with mixed-signal simulation, multi-layer printed circuit board design (including printed circuit board automatic layout and wiring), programmable Logic device design, chart generation, circuit form generation, support for macro operations and other functions, and has a Client/Server (client/service architecture), but also compatible with some other design software file formats, such as ORCAD, PSPICE, EXCEL and so on. The use of multilayer printed circuit boards, automatic wiring, high-density PCB can be realized 100% cloth through the rate of Protel software is powerful (both circuit simulation and PLD development functions), friendly interface, easy to use, but it is the most representative of the circuit design and PCB design.
2.3 IC design software
IC design tools are many, which is ranked by market share for Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Synopsys, these three are ASIC design field is quite famous software suppliers. Other companies have relatively few users of their software. China's Welltec also provides ASIC design software (Panda 2000); in addition to the recent famous Avanti, the original Cadence several Chinese engineers founded, their design tools can be comprehensive and Cadence's tools to compete, very suitable for deep submicron IC design. Here are some introductions to IC design software by use.
①Design input tools
This is any kind of EDA software must have the basic functions. Like Cadence's composer, viewlogic's viewdraw, hardware description language VHDL, Verilog HDL is the main design language, many design input tools support HDL (such as multiSIM, etc.). In addition like Active-HDL and other design input methods, including principle and state machine input methods, design FPGA/CPLD tools can mostly be used as input means for IC design, such as Xilinx, Altera and other companies to provide the development tools Modelsim FPGA and so on.
②Design Simulation
One of the biggest benefits of using EDA tools is that we can verify whether the design is correct or not, and almost every company's EDA product has a simulation tool. verilog-XL, NC-verilog for Verilog simulation, Leapfrog for VHDL simulation, Analog Artist for analog circuit simulation. Viewlogic's simulators include: viewsim gate-level circuit simulator, speedwave VHDL simulator, VCS-verilog simulator, Mentor Graphics has its subsidiary Model Tech's dual VHDL and Verilog simulator: Model Sim. Cadence, Synopsys use VSS (VHDL simulator). The trend now is that all major EDA companies are gradually using HDL simulators as a tool for circuit verification.
3 synthesis tools
Synthesis tools can turn HDL into gate-level netlist. In this regard, Synopsys tools have a big advantage, its Design Compile is as a synthesis of the industry standard, it also has another product called Behavior Compiler, can provide more advanced synthesis.
In addition, recently the U.S. has come out with a software called Ambit, which is said to be more effective than Synopsys's software, and can synthesize 500,000 gates of circuits faster. Earlier this year Ambit was acquired by Cadence, for which Cadence abandoned its original synthesis software Synergy. with the increasing scale of FPGA design, the EDA companies have developed a comprehensive software for FPGA design, the more famous are: Synopsys FPGA Express, Cadence's Synplity, Mentor's Leonardo, these three FPGA integrated software accounted for the vast majority of the market.
④Layout and wiring
In the IC design layout and wiring tools, Cadence software is relatively strong, it has a lot of products for standard cells, gate arrays have been able to realize interactive wiring. The most famous is Cadence spectra, which was originally used for PCB wiring, and later Cadence used it for IC wiring. Its main tools are: Cell3, Silicon Ensemble-standard unit wirer; Gate Ensemble-gate array wirer; Design Planner-layout tools. Other EDA software development companies also provide their own layout tools.
⑤Physical verification tools
Physical verification tools include layout design tools, layout verification tools, layout extraction tools and so on. This aspect of Cadence is also very strong, its Dracula, Virtuso, Vampire and other physical tools have many users.
6 analog circuit simulator
The simulator mentioned earlier is mainly for digital circuits, for analog circuit simulation tools, the general use of SPICE, which is the only choice. Just choose SPICE from different companies, like MiceoSim's PSPICE, Meta Soft's HSPICE, etc. HSPICE is now acquired by Avanti. Among the many SPICE, HSPICE as IC design, it has many models and high accuracy of simulation.
2.4 PLD design tools
PLD (Programmable Logic Device) is a kind of digital integrated circuits that the user constructs its own logic functions according to its needs. Currently there are two main types: CPLD (Complex PLD) and FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). Their basic design method is with the help of EDA software, schematic diagrams, state machines, Boolean expressions, hardware description language and other methods, to generate the corresponding target file, and finally with a programmer or download cable, by the target device to achieve. There are many manufacturers producing PLDs, but the most representative PLD manufacturers are Altera, Xilinx and Lattice.
PLD development tools are generally provided by the device manufacturer, but with the increasing size of the device, the complexity of the software has increased, and is currently used by specialized software companies and device manufacturers to introduce powerful design software. The following is an introduction to the main device manufacturers and development tools.
①ALTERA: the 1990s after the rapid development. The main products are: MAX3000/7000, FELX6K/10K, APEX20K, ACEX1K, Stratix and so on. Its development tools - MAX + PLUS II is a more successful PLD development platform, the latest and launched the Quartus II development software. Altera provides more forms of design input means, binding third-party VHDL synthesis tools, such as: synthesis software FPGA Express, Leonard Spectrum, simulation software ModelSim.
②ILINX: The inventor of FPGA. A full range of products, mainly: XC9500/4000, Coolrunner (XPLA3), Spartan, Vertex and other series, its largest Vertex-II Pro device has reached 8 million gates. The development software is Foundation and ISE. Generally speaking, more people use Xilinx in Europe, more people use ALTERA in Japan and Asia-Pacific, and it's a tie in the United States. More than 60% of the global PLD/FPGA products are provided by Altera and Xilinx. It can be said that Altera and Xilinx **** with the decision of the development direction of PLD technology.
③Lattice-Vantis: Lattice is the inventor of ISP (In-System Programmability) technology, ISP technology has greatly contributed to the development of PLD products, and ALTERA and XILINX compared to its development tools than Altera and Xilinx slightly inferior. Small and medium-sized PLDs are more distinctive, and large-scale PLDs are not yet competitive enough (Lattice does not have large-scale FPGAs based on look-up table technology). programmable analog devices were introduced in 1999, and the acquisition of Vantis (formerly a subsidiary of AMD) in 1999 made the company the third largest supplier of programmable logic devices. the acquisition of Agere Corporation in December 2001 (formerly the In December 2001, the company acquired the FPGA division of Agere (formerly Lucent Microelectronics). The main products are ispLSI2000/5000/8000, MACH4/5.
④ACTEL: The leader in anti-fuse (one-time burn-in) PLDs. Due to the anti-fuse PLD radiation resistance, high and low temperature resistance, low power consumption, speed, so in the military and aerospace-grade has a greater advantage. ALTERA and XILINX is generally not involved in the military and aerospace-grade market.
⑤Quicklogic: a professional PLD/FPGA company, focusing on one-time anti-fuse process, with little sales in China.
6 Lucent: the main feature is that there are a lot of specialized IP cores for communication field, but PLD/FPGA is not the main business of Lucent, and few people use it in China region.
7 ATMEL: small and medium-sized PLD to do well. ATMEL also did some with Altera and Xilinx compatible tablets, but there are still some gaps in quality and the original manufacturers, in the use of high-reliability products less, more used in low-end products.
8 Clear Logic: production and some of the famous PLD/FPGA large companies compatible with the chip, this chip can be the user's design of a one-time curing, not programmable, mass production at a lower cost.
9 WSI: the production of PSD (microcontroller programmable peripheral chip) products. This is a special PLD, such as the latest PSD8xx, PSD9xx integrated PLD, EPROM, Flash, and supports ISP (in-line programming), high integration, mainly used to work with the microcontroller.
By the way: PLD (Programmable Logic Devices) is a new type of circuit that can completely replace the 74 series and GAL, PLA, as long as there is a foundation in digital circuits, the use of computers, can be carried out on the development of PLD. PLD's on-line programming capabilities and powerful development software, so that engineers can be a few days, or even a few minutes can be completed in the past to complete the work of a few weeks! PLD technology has become a must-have technology for electronic engineers in developed countries.
2.5 Other EDA software
①VHDL language: ultra-high-speed integrated circuit hardware description language (VHSIC Hardware Deseription Languagt, referred to as VHDL), is a standard design language of the IEEE. It originated from the U.S. Department of Defense proposed Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit, referred to as VHSIC) program, is the ASIC design and PLD design of a major input tool.
②Veriolg HDL: Verilog is a hardware description language introduced by Verilog, which is equal to VHDL in ASIC design.
③ Other EDA software such as tools specialized in microwave circuit design and power carrier tools, PCB fabrication and process control.
3 EDA applications
EDA plays a great role in all aspects of teaching, research, product design and manufacturing. In terms of teaching, almost all universities and colleges of science and technology (especially electronic information) have opened EDA courses. The main purpose is to enable students to understand the basic concepts and basic principles of EDA, master the specification of writing in HDL language, master the theory and algorithms of logic synthesis, use EDA tools to carry out the experimental verification of electronic circuits course and engage in the design of simple systems. General study of circuit simulation tools (such as multiSIM, PSPICE) and PLD development tools (such as Altera/Xilinx's device structure and development system), laying the foundation for future work.
Research mainly utilizes circuit simulation tools (multiSIM or PSPICE) for circuit design and simulation; utilizes virtual instrumentation for product testing; practically applies CPLD/FPGA devices to instrumentation; and engages in PCB design and ASIC design.
In product design and manufacturing, including computer simulation, product development in the application of EDA tools, system-level simulation and test environment simulation, the production pipeline EDA technology applications, product testing and other aspects. Such as the production of PCB, the development and production of electronic equipment, circuit board welding, ASIC production process.
From the point of view of the application field, EDA technology has penetrated into all walks of life, as mentioned above, including in the mechanical, electronic, communications, aviation aerospace, chemical, mineral, biological, medical, military and other fields, there are EDA applications. In addition, EDA software is increasingly powerful, the original function of the software is relatively single, and now adds a lot of new uses. Such as AutoCAD software can be used for mechanical and architectural design, but also extends to the building decoration and various types of renderings, car and aircraft models, movie stunts and other fields.
4 EDA technology trends
From the current EDA technology, the development trend is that the government attaches importance to the popularization of the use of a wide range of applications, a variety of tools, powerful software.
China's EDA market is maturing, although most design engineers are oriented to the field of PCB boards and small ASICs, with only a small percentage (about 11%) of designers developing complex system-on-chip devices. In order to compete more strongly with design engineers in Taiwan and the U.S., it is necessary for China's design teams to introduce and learn some of the latest EDA technologies.
In the field of information and communications, priority should be given to the development of high-speed broadband information networks, deep submicron integrated circuits, new components, computer and software technology, third-generation mobile communications technology, information management, information security technology, and actively develop a new generation of information products based on digital technology, network technology, the development of new industries, and cultivate new points of economic growth. To vigorously promote manufacturing informatization, and actively carry out computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), computer-aided process (CAPP), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), product data management (PDM), manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) and enterprise resource management (ERP). Enterprises in a position to carry out "network manufacturing" to facilitate cooperative design, manufacturing cooperation, and participation in domestic and international competition. Carry out the "numerical control" project and "digitalization" project. Automation instrumentation technology trends in testing technology, control technology and computer technology, communication technology to further integration, the formation of measurement, control, communication and computer (M3C) structure. In the ASIC and PLD design, to the ultra-high-speed, high-density, low-power, low-voltage development.
Peripheral technology and EDA engineering combined with the market prospects, such as the combination of ultra-large screen related connections, multi-screen technology has also developed.
China has accelerated the development of its semiconductor industry since 1995, establishing several design centers and promoting a range of design activities to meet competition from other EDA markets in the Asia-Pacific region.
In terms of EDA software development, is currently concentrated in the United States. However, countries are also working to develop appropriate tools. Japan and South Korea have ASIC design tools, but not open to the public. China's UW IC Design Center, also provides IC design software, but the performance is not very strong. I believe that in the near future there will be more and better design tools around the blossom and results. According to the latest statistics, China and India are becoming the two fastest growing markets in the field of electronic design automation, with annual growth rates of 50% and 30% respectively.
EDA technology is developing rapidly, can be used to describe the rapid change of EDA technology, EDA technology has a wide range of applications, now involved in all walks of life. EDA level continues to improve, the design tool tends to be the perfect point. EDA market is becoming more and more mature, but the level of research and development in China is still very limited, and still need to catch up.