Other Changes

PrimeTime® I-2013.12 Release

© Synopsys 2013 1
 CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
The following material is being disclosed to you pursuant to a non-
disclosure agreement between you or your employer and
Synopsys. Information disclosed in this presentation shall be used
only as permitted under such an agreement.

LEGAL NOTICE
Information contained in this presentation reflects Synopsys plans
as of the date of this presentation. Such plans are subject to
completion and are subject to change. Products may be offered
and purchased only pursuant to an authorized quote and purchase
order. Synopsys is not obligated to develop the software with the
features and functionality discussed in the materials.

© Synopsys 2013 2
 Topics
New enable_primetime_icc_consistency_settings command
Tcl 8.5 version support
Changes in CRPR default
Transition calculation variable changes
64-bit SPEF node number support
Precedence rule for max_capacitance constraints
Clock exclusivity relationship for signal integrity analysis
Interclock hold checking for unexpandable clocks

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Variable and Timing Consistency
PrimeTime and IC Compiler
• PrimeTime and IC Compiler have new capabilities to align variables for
consistency
• Two new commands facilitate correlation between PrimeTime and IC
Compiler
• Focus is postroute design correlation

• New command in IC Compiler:

check_primetime_icc_consistency_settings
– Checks both IC Compiler and PrimeTime setups
– For more information about IC Compiler correlation, see SolvNet article 021231, “IC
Compiler Correlation Checklist Trilogy”

• New command in PrimeTime and IC Compiler:

enable_primetime_icc_consistency_settings
– Changes settings for consistency

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 Definition of Variables
• Flow variables
– Special variables that enable a particular flow
– Common in both tools
– By default, enable_primetime_icc_consistency_settings does
not change flow variables to the recommended value (unless you use the
–all option)
– Example: AOCV and signal integrity
• Feature-gap variables
– Special variables that are unique to each tool
– By default, enable_primetime_icc_consistency_settings does
not change feature-gap variables to the recommended value (unless you
use the –all option)
– Example: PrimeTime timing_all_clocks_propagated variable

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 New enable_primetime_icc_consistency_settings
Command

• New command in PrimeTime and IC Compiler

– Changes PrimeTime and IC Compiler settings if
different from recommendation
– Echoes settings changed for consistency
– Changes only non-flow and non-feature-gap variables
by default
– Changes the flow and feature-gap variables to
recommended settings when you use the
–all option

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 Example in PrimeTime
enable_primetime_icc_consistency_settings
Variable changed Original Value
Changed
pt_shell> enable_primetime_icc_consistency_settings to Value
set rc_degrade_min_slew_when_rd_less_than_rnet false
# rc_degrade_min_slew_when_rd_less_than_rnet changed to true
set timing_clock_gating_propagate_enable true
# timing_clock_gating_propagate_enable changed to false
1
pt_shell> printvar rc_degrade_min_slew_when_rd_less_than_rnet
rc_degrade_min_slew_when_rd_less_than_rnet = “true”

With –all option, flow related variable is

Variable changed
changed to recommend value
pt_shell> enable_primetime_icc_consistency_settings -all
set si_enable_analysis false Original Value
# si_enable_analysis changed to true
1 Changed to Value
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 PrimeTime Tcl/Tk Version Support

• PrimeTime version I-2013.12 now supports

Tcl/Tk version 8.5

– External link detailing highlights:

– http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/8.5.tml

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 Variable Default Changes for CRPR

• In PrimeTime I-2013.12, clock reconvergence

pessimism removal (CRPR) is enabled by default

– I-2013.12 default
timing_remove_clock_reconvergence_pessimism = "true"

– Previous releases (before I-2013.12) default

timing_remove_clock_reconvergence_pessimism = "false"

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 New Variable for Transition Calculation

• In PrimeTime I-2013.12, the

timing_si_exclude_delta_slew_for_
transition_constraint variable is obsolete
• It is replaced by the
si_xtalk_max_transition_mode variable, which
has the same functionality and more adequately
describes the functionality
• The default behavior remains the same
– The si_xtalk_max_transition_mode variable has two
settings: uncoupled (default) and reliability
• For more details, see the
si_xtalk_max_transition_mode man page

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 64-Bit SPEF Node Number Support
Previous releases
• Supported only 32-bit SPEF node numbers
• 64-bit SPEF node numbers resulted in errors
• Error: Semantic error near '2148932200':
expected pos_integer in node name at line
4827 in file ‘TOP.spef'. (SPFP-116)

I-2013.12
• 64-bit versions of PrimeTime support 64-bit SPEF node
numbers
• 32-bit versions of PrimeTime support 32-bit SPEF node
numbers

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 Precedence Rule for max_capacitance
Constraints
• New variable in I-2013.12 release
– set timing_enable_max_cap_precedence false

• By default (variable set to false), PrimeTime uses the

most restrictive (smallest) max_capacitance constraint
for DRC checking

• The following precedence rule is used for deriving

max_capacitance constraints when the variable is set to
true
– The pin-level max capacitance value
– Library derived max_capacitance value
– Design-level max_capacitance value

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 Clock Exclusivity Relationship for
Signal Integrity Analysis
• A clock exclusivity relationship on a master clock does
not automatically propagate to their generated clocks
– If CLKA is physically exclusive to CLKB, then the paths between
CLKA and generated clocks of CLKB are not considered
physically exclusive.
– PrimeTime SI crosstalk delay and noise analysis also does not
consider CLKA and generated clock of CLKB as physically
exclusive

• To apply the relationship on generated clocks, explicitly

specify the generated clock names with the
set_clock_group command

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 Interclock Hold Checking for
Unexpandable Clocks

ClkA
Hold check between Hold check between
correct edges incorrect edges

ClkB
Common base period when
expansion limits reached

• In previous releases, if PrimeTime could not find a common base

period for related clocks (PTE-053), the tool performed hold checks
at the last pair of edges in the adjusted common base period
– Resulted in inaccurate hold slack

• In version I-2013.12, PrimeTime performs correct hold checking

between the first pair of clock edges

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