ADA Jumpstarts ControlNet's Design of Analog Blocks for FireWire Chip; ADA's Genius Family of Products Enabled ControlNet to Size and Optimize Chip in Three Weeks.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif. & OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2003 Analog Design Automation, Inc. (ADA Ada, city, United States Ada (ā`ə), city (1990 pop. 15,820), seat of Pontotoc co., S central Okla.; inc. 1904. It is a large cattle market and the center of a rich oil and ranch area. ) today announced that ControlNet, Inc., a leading developer of chip cores, circuit designs, and software for the local and wide-area networking (LAN/WAN LAN/WAN Local Area Network/Wide Area Network ) and FireWire markets, has successfully taped out Refers to the completion of the design of a chip. The next stage is to put it into production. The term comes from the early days when designs were transferred to the fabricator via magnetic tape. its first FireWire design using ADA's Genius(TM) product line. Genius allowed ControlNet to analyze and optimize three analog design blocks in only three weeks, including testbench time. "Using ADA's Genius immediately gave us the data to determine whether our basic architecture was going to meet specifications or not," said Mark Knecht, vice president of engineering for ControlNet. "We were also able to evaluate all manufacturing and environmental variations much more comprehensively than with human effort alone. Genius enabled us to have first silicon functional and second silicon production-ready, a very positive result for a design with significant analog content." ADA's Genius family of products includes Creative Genius(TM), a high-capacity optimizer, which automates component sizing and biasing to achieve optimal circuit performance; and IP Explorer(TM), a performance tradeoff explorer, which allows designers to visually understand and weigh design tradeoffs. "ControlNet's chip is ADA Genius' first publicly announced design to reach tapeout," said Matthew Raggett, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of ADA. "This tapeout validates Genius as a product line that enables system-on-chip companies to address the bottleneck A lessening of throughput. It often refers to networks that are overloaded, which is caused by the inability of the hardware and transmission lines to support the traffic. It can also refer to a mismatch inside the computer where slower-speed peripheral buses and devices prevent the CPU created by the lack of automated analog design tools in the current design flow. We look forward to continuing to enable ControlNet to deliver complex designs with increasing analog content." ControlNet was having difficulty with two of the three blocks in its three-port 1394 Phy when it sought out ADA. The company had been successful in using traditional techniques to develop a voltage driver that met standards, however the design for the bandgap reference was unable to meet required gain, temperature coefficient The temperature coefficient is the relative change of a physical property when the temperature is changed by 1 K. In the following formula, let R be the physical property to be measured, let T be the temperature of at which the property is measured. , and output voltage requirements, and the data receiver was unable to switch over all 256 variations at the desired frequency and input signal amplitude amplitude (ăm`plĭt  d'), in physics, maximum displacement from a zero value or rest position. . Creative Genius was used to complete an initial analysis on the bandgap reference with the original 52 design variables under nominal conditions and under three worst-case conditions. Circuit optimization optimization Field of applied mathematics whose principles and methods are used to solve quantitative problems in disciplines including physics, biology, engineering, and economics. features resized each of the 26 components, producing a library of solutions that clearly showed performance tradeoffs. Creative Genius was also used to optimize the data receiver across 256 variations. IP Explorer then allowed ControlNet designers to visualize and carefully weigh tradeoffs, empowering them to select the design that was most robust and met or exceeded industry requirements. As a result of using the Genius family, ControlNet was able to optimize the two problem blocks. Maximum op-amp gain in the bandgap reference was increased from 41.3 dB to 119.5 dB at 750 mV common-mode input; the temperature coefficient was decreased from 403.88 to 24.33 ppm/C; and the overall voltage output variation was decreased from .02 to .0025 V in the bandgap reference. Genius was also able to optimize the data receiver to switch over all variations at a frequency of 400 MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. and an input signal amplitude of 70mV. About ControlNet, Inc. (www.controlnet.com) ControlNet, Inc. is a start-up incubator incubator, apparatus for the maintenance of controlled conditions in which eggs can be hatched artificially. Incubator houses with double walls of mud, a fireroom, and several compartments each holding about 6,000 hens' eggs were developed in ancient times; the focused on next-generation semiconductor and system solutions for industrial and home networking technologies. ControlNet's wholly-owned subsidiaries include Antara (www.antara.net), a developer of network test equipment, and Vaishali (www.vaishali.com), a developer of unique semiconductor solutions. ControlNet's HomeLAN division (www.homelan.com, www.homelanfed.com) provides leading edge on-line game server support. ControlNet India, Private Limited (www.controlnetindia.com) provides leading edge semiconductor and software design services. ControlNet, Inc. is located in Campbell California and Goa, India. About Analog Design Automation, Inc. (www.analogsynthesis.com) Analog Design Automation, Inc. (ADA) is the leading provider of high-capacity optimization tools for the analog, mixed-signal, and custom integrated circuit integrated circuit (IC), electronic circuit built on a semiconductor substrate, usually one of single-crystal silicon. The circuit, often called a chip, is packaged in a hermetically sealed case or a nonhermetic plastic capsule, with leads extending from it for (IC) markets. Using ADA's patent-pending, intelligent systems-based high-capacity optimization engine, the Genius line of products improves circuit performance, reduces development costs, increases designer efficiency, and reduces the number of silicon re-spins for system-on-chip (SoC) and custom IC design. ADA's products include Creative Genius(TM), which automates device sizing and biasing to effectively optimize circuit performance; and IP Explorer(TM), a performance tradeoff exploration tool used to analyze optimized circuits from Creative Genius and to select optimal IP. ADA is located in San Jose, California San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. , and Ottawa, Canada. Creative Genius and IP Explorer Genius are trademarks of Analog Design Automation, Inc. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. |
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