Why Analog Rails?

Analog Rails is a complete analog expert system that is intended to reduce the time to market on your mixed signal chips by a huge factor. There is a methodology and flow built into it. The usage is a paradigm shift and is several generations beyond what is out in the market.

REDUCE CYCLE TIMES
  1. Because of layout automation, real parasitics are used during the design phase.
  2. Last minute changes? No problem. Blow away the autoroutes, edit, then autoroute again.
  3. Place your DUT into your already established test benches (we can supply them), change the spec, and run the optimizer. Saves weeks of trading off between specs and operating regions (set minimum vds-vdsat).
  4. Correct by construction. No more DRC or LVS errors.
  5. Mr. Checkit, Mr. Fixit, Mr. Nudger will synchronize your layout to your schematic and fix it instantaneously.
  6. Displays changes on hierarchies below by colorizing the hierarchical editor
SAVE AREA
  1. No need to be conservative on layouts. Most blocks are designed with 20% area thrown away to leave room for design changes. No longer needed.
  2. The circuit designer can utilize black space during the design and make sizes bigger for matching or increasing headroom. The designer can also tradeoff sizes (rout vs gm) for layout efficiency.
  3. Sensitivity analysis based on the REAL layout parasitics can allow the circuit designer to be less conservative on sizes.
  4. Top down layouts freeze the size of lower blocks, Now you can quickly change the lower cells and readjust the top level blocks.
  5. Can flatten layout hierarchies, because we keep the intelligence (cross-probing, hierarchical net names, etc). You can squeeze devices together.
IMPROVE QUALITY
  1. Your layout designer has no chance against our automatic router. Our router is electrically aware. We know which nets are high impedence, low impedence, static, dynamic, etc. The router gets information from the simulation run automatically. Our router will keep capacitances low when needed, shield differential or sensitive nets, etc.
  2. The circuit designer controls the location of the devices at the rate of 30 seconds per device, after picking one of many automatic flow based floorplans.
  3. Automatic built-in inter-digitized or side by side differential structures with perfectly symmetrical routing.
  4. Sensitivity analysis provides bullet proof designs.
  5. Reduced cycle time results in more verification time. No more last minute scrambling and taking shortcuts.
  6. Optimize devices to meet specification based on sensitivity to Vds, Vgs, LOD, WPE, etc.
  7. Our manual editor is much more powerful than our competitors'. Dummies made easy, automatic via insertion, auto abut, repel, etc.
DIAGNOSTIC IMPROVEMENTS
  1. Backannotates ad, as, pd, ps, sb, sc, sd, sca, scb, scc, parasitic capacitance.
  2. Voltages/currents backannotation tracks the waveform.
  3. Smoke alarms: Colorizes fets and shows when maximum voltages are exceeded.
  4. EM. Set EM% on the pulldown. All segments and vias that exceed that value are shown in the layout.
  5. IR drop. Click onto 2 points on a route. See the resistance and voltage drop through the segments and vias.
  6. Cross-probing between schematic, layout, and hierarchical editor at all times.
  7. Sensitivity and mismatch analysis built in.
  8. 3D view. Great feature when using with IR drop.
COMPATIBILITY
  1. Open Access is our database. Plug and play with Virtuoso.
REDUCE CAD EFFORT
  1. Pcells are built-in. Design rules generate them.
  2. Tools all work together. Analog Rails is a complete designers package. No customization required.
  3. Process files and support comes with the tool. All are ascii files that can be adjusted if you want to, but we can handle this assignment if we have access to the design rule manual.
      4. COMPARISON TO INDUSTRY STANDARD ANALOG DESIGN PLATFORM:
      Your Platform Analog Rails
      Your platform is made to be customized. Analog Rails has a self contained methodology flow.
      Your platform is built on a full customization platform Analog Rails is based on built in methodologies. Some user control exists
      Your platform is a bicycle and they are trying to add a motor to it Analog Rails is a motorcycle with pedaling capability.
      Your platform is made up of independent components Analog Rails integrates the tools, making the platform more powerful than the sum of its parts.
      Your platform tools are unsynchronized Analog Rails is 100% synchronized
      Your platform layouts must run DRC and LVS Analog Rails is correct by construction (Mr Checkit, Mr Fixit, and Mr Nudger)
      Your platform layout designers can be flexible create unidentified routes Analog Rails does not allow unidentified routes in "railed" mode
      Your platform has a decoupled simulation environment Analog Rails has simulation components in the schematic
      Your platform users analyze EM and parasitic effects post layout Analog Rails passes simulation information to the router in advance
      Your platform is post simulation centric. Has a calculator. Analog Rails is optimization centric, but also has a calculator.