My DAC started early last Monday morning with a delicious breakfast and a lively discussion with robaitken of ARM, Kelvin Low of Samsung Electronics, Glenn Dukes of Synopsys and skillfully moderated by synopsysphil. The team came together to discuss the challenges that chip designers face when building and implementing SoCs at 28nm and 14nm.
14nm is real and workingKelvin Low started the morning off by sharing about the real success and benefits that have already been achieved at 14nm. Low shared that Samsung has already manufactured more than 30 test-chips and 5 product tapeouts in 14nm since 2012. He also showed a video running of a production 14nm chip, which also was being shown off in the Samsung booth. This production chip was created with an ARM-based CPU using ARM Artisan(R) physical IP and Synopsys tools and IP. In comparing results from 28nm, Low shared up to a 50% power reduction in comparison to 28nm. To further demonstrate why 14nm is ready for you for production today, Samsung announced full IP and key EDA ecosystem readiness for 14nm FinFET with support from ARM, Cadence Design Systems Mentor Graphics Corporation and Synopsys. Samsung 14nm is real and ready for use!
Glenn Dukes continued the theme of 14nm FinFET tools’ ecosystem support by detailing 14nm and 28nm proof points supported by Samsung and ARM (R) Processors and physical IP.
Rob Aitken furthered the discussion of how to take advantage of 14nm FinFET by detailing how FinFET allows for improved voltage and frequency behavior over bulk devices. He showed proof points of how energy scales from 28nm to 14nm FinFET, including superior low voltage levels, which are perfect for mobile devices. So that engineers could walk away with practical tips of how to optimize FinFET, Aitken shared his designer’s cheat sheet.
The breakfast continued with a panel discussion covering topics from when will 14nm be ready (now) to how long with 28nm be used (strong node; for a long time) to what are the killer apps for 14nm (ranges from mobile to networking.)
If you chose to sleep in or were still driving up to DAC or didn’t get to travel to DAC this year, the great news is you don’t have to just take my view of the event. The breakfast was recorded and the video will be shared for all soon - I’ll update this blog when it’s available.
Did I miss your favorite topic during the panel?
Hamilton Carter also covered the breakfast in his notes DAC Notes, 2014_06_02 | The Canonical Hamiltonian
Thanks for the writeup, Lori Kate! In addition to all the great 14nm FinFET content (including the cool 14nm full product demo by Kelvin Low), the panel also covered Samsung 28nm enablement that's already in place for both bulk and FD-SOI process technologies. Kelvin noted that 28nm is an ideal target for IoT devices, with a great combination of power/performance efficiency and cost effectiveness.
While still at 51dac, Synopsys, STMicroelectronics and Samsung Electronics announced a collaboration to extend production proven Synopsys DesignWare IP plus Galaxy Design Platform and Lynx Design System tool flows on STMicroelectronics' 28 FD-SOI process to Samsung in support of the recent Samsung and STMicroelectronics strategic agreement to offer dual sourcing of ST's 28-nm FD-SOI technology