The Chip Design Crisis
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Rupp
May,4 2009
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms

Outline
Why Mobile Communications?
 Problems in the Design of Wireless Systems
 Complexity Gap
 Design Productivity Gap
 Problems and Solutions
 Parallelism, IP-Reuse, Predictive Design
 Inconsistent Design, Lack of Tool Support, Refinement
Techniques, Design Languages, Automatic HW/SW Partitioning
 Virtual Prototyping, Automatic Testing and Verification,
Automatic Float to Fix Conversion
 Static Code Analysis, automatic DFG and CFG Generation, Code
Understanding and Interpretation
 Low Power and Power aware Designs
 Software Defined Radio
 Conclusions
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 2
Why Mobile Communications?
 Communication is a deep, human
requirement
 In particular in oral form
 We would like to speak with arbitrary
persons any time at any location.
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 3
Mobile communication of the past
 C-Netz




Autotelefonnetz C
Start Nov.1984
First only in automobiles (later portable 10 kg)
Starting price ca. 50.000 öS
First fully automatic
mobile cellular net
(radius about 15 km)
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 4
How do we communicate today?
 GSM
 Developed to support speech only (intro Austria in
94)
 Although, today also SMS (in Austria 95) and with
GPRS also data transmission possible.
 UMTS
 Supports equally speech and various data services
 Even Multimedia Application with Video Streaming
 WLAN
 Originally planned as pure data communication
(Internet)
 Supports also speech services (VoIP)
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 5
Is Mobile Communication
successful?
Until selling of one Million units, it took…
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 6
Is Mobile Communication successful?
http://www.rtr.at/en/tk/TeilnehmerstaendeMF2007
9,6
9,7
8,4
User in Austria
in Millions
2005
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
2006 2006
slide 7
What makes Mobile
Communications a difficult task?
 Limited Spectrum
 Most of Spectrum is used by ORF!
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 8
Spectrum
UHF Band
ISM
TETRA
IRIDIUM
DECT
GSM
1800
410
433.5 450
430 434.79
1621.35
470
MHz
1626.5
1710
1GHz
300 MHz
GSM
1800
1785
1880
MHz
1805
2GHz
1900
3GHz
EGSM
UMTS Satellite
D-Netz
GSM
872 880
890
900
905 917 925
950 MHz
935
960
915
UMTS
UMTS
1900
1980
2010
Quelle: ERO, European Radiocommunications Office, erstellt:T. Neubauer
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
2110
2170
2200
MHz
slide 9
What makes Mobile
Communications a difficult task?
 Limited Spectrum
 Most of Spectrum is used by ORF!
 Limited Battery Power
 Battery increases with 2% per year
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 10
Power
Handy requires only 0,000 000 000 000 1 Watt
for reception!
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 11
What makes Mobile
Communications a difficult task?
 Limited Spectrum
 Most of Spectrum is used by ORF!
 Limited Battery Power
 Battery increases with 2% per year
 Multi-path propagation
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 12
Multi Path Propagation
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 13
Multi Path Propagation
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 14
What makes Mobile
Communications a difficult task?
 Limited Spectrum
 Most of Spectrum is used by ORF!
 Limited Battery Power
 Battery increases with 2% per year
 Multi-path propagation
 Complexity
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 15
Complexity Gap in 3rd G.
Wireless
Processor Performance
(Moore)
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 16
Design Productivity Gap
Transistors per Chip (M)
Productivity Trans./Staff - Mo.
10,000
.10m 1,000
100
.35m
10,000,000
58%/Yr. compound
Complexity growth rate
1,000,000
10
100,000
1
10,000
.1
2.5m
100,000,000
.01
x
xx
x x
x
x
1,000
x
21%/Yr. compound
Productivity growth rate
.001
Logic Tr./Chip
Tr./S.M.
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
100
10
Source:
SEMATECH
slide 17
Some Observations in 3rd
Generation Wireless
 Today, about 70% of development time is verification.
 90% of the product cost are predetermined by its
detailed specification.
 Standards (UMTS R99 in Dec.1999, R4 in March
2001, R5 in March 2003, R6 (Dez 04), R7 (Sep 05),
R8 (March 08). change faster than the product design
cycle. (1.LTE rev-Dec08)
 The required time to market becomes decisive:
launching six months early, triples profits, six months
late results in breaking even.
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 18
Sematech‘s Answer (1999)
 For every $1 invested in EDA tools, an additional
$2 to $5 are spent on integration into the design
flow.
 No EDA vendor or using company can supply all the
tools needed today.
 Promote rapid integration of new tools from
industry and university research.
 Create Chip Hierarchical Design System
technical standard (CHDStd)
 This has not happened until today!
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 19

Outline
Why Mobile Communications?
 Problems in the Design of Wireless Systems
 Complexity Gap
 Design Productivity Gap
 Problems and Solutions
 Parallelism, IP-Reuse, Predictive Design
 Inconsistent Design, Lack of Tool Support, Refinement
Techniques, Design Languages, Automatic HW/SW Partitioning
 Virtual Prototyping, Automatic Testing and Verification,
Automatic Float to Fix Conversion
 Static Code Analysis, automatic DFG and CFG Generation, Code
Understanding and Interpretation
 Low Power and Power aware Designs
 Software Defined Radio
 Conclusions
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 20
Problems and Solutions
 Solutions to the Complexity Problem:




Predictive Design
Parallelism
Hardware Accelerators
Re-using IP
 = “Classical Approaches”
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 21
Problems and Solutions
 Solutions to the Design Productivity
Problem:
 No Solutions currently in Products
 Multitude of Problems exist:
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 22
Inconsistent Design
System-Design
Marketing
Researc
h
Implementation
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 23
Lack in Tool Support
High
Level of abstraction
Low
Ptolemy
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 24
Lack in Tool Support
 A multitude of EDA Tools exists already .
 However, they all cover only a certain part of the
design flow.
 Major disadvantage of existing EDA Tools:
not compatible to each other!
 Basic lack exists in:




HW/SW/FW partitioning
Platform based designs
Float-to-Fix conversion
Power aware design at High Level description
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 25
Dream: Consistent Design Flow
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 26
Dream: Consistent Design Flow
 Can be achieved...
 Via a single design representation covering
all design steps equally
 Via one-code paradigm
 Via refinement steps
 Via closing the tool gap...
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 27
Open Tool Integration
Environment (OTIE)
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 29
Design Database (DBB) Internal
View
Module
has
Structure
realized by
Process
Property
has
Process
Instance
has
Alias
hierarchy
Properties
BasicBlock
Property
has
has
Basic
Block
has
Data
has
consists
of
For static code analysis
 property tables,
 process table,
 and basic block tables
of the DDB are used.
DataFlow
Element
connected
by
connected
by
BasicBlock
Connection
DataFlow
Connection
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
specified
by
DataFlow
Attribute
Code
slide 30
Automatic HW/SW Partitioning Example
SCG
Delay Profile Estimator (a UMTS receiver component)
CCG
Process
Inputs, I,Q,
Parameters
Correlation
Coherent
Accu
SqrAnd
Sum
NonCoh
Accu
Finger
Placement
Path
Profiling
Peak
Detection
Cost = ρ CostCC + (1- ρ) CostGC
ρ = 0.68 .. 0.7
We basically achieved the same result
as well-trained design group
We needed about 6 seconds!
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
HW
(M)
SW
(M)
HW
(A)
SCG
X
CCG
X
Correlation
X
X
CoherentAccu
X
X
SqrAndSum
X
X
NonCohAccu
X
SW
(A)
X
X
X
PeakDetection
X
X
PathProfiling
X
X
FingerPlacem.
X
X
slide 31

Outline
Why Mobile Communications?
 Problems in the Design of Wireless Systems
 Complexity Gap
 Design Productivity Gap
 Problems and Solutions
 Parallelism, IP-Reuse, Predictive Design
 Inconsistent Design, Lack of Tool Support, Refinement
Techniques, Design Languages, Automatic HW/SW Partitioning
 Virtual Prototyping, Automatic Testing and Verification,
Automatic Float to Fix Conversion
 Static Code Analysis, automatic DFG and CFG Generation, Code
Understanding and Interpretation
 Low Power and Power aware Designs
 Software Defined Radio
 Conclusions
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 32
Virtual Prototyping (1)
Algorithmic Design
Architectural Design
HW Realisation
SW Implementation
FW Development
Algorithmic Design
Architectural Design
VP Implementation
HW Realisation
SW Implementation
FW Development
Algorithmic Design
Architectural Design
VP Implementation
HW Realisation
SW Implementation
FW Development
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 33
Virtual Prototyping (2)
 Virtual Prototype:
 Whole system behavior can be tested via
simulation
 but not as fast as having a prototype available
 After HW is available, VP can be replaced
SW/FW
HW/SW Interface
VP
HW
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 34
Supporting Platform Based Designs in VP
DMA
DSP
...
System
bus
RAM
HA1
HA2
...
Direct I/O
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 35
Automatic VP Generation Environment
HW/SW
partitioning
information
table
VP components for
W,X,Y,Z
COSSAP Project
W
X
Z
Y
Fileset
*.gc
v_arc
Bus Interface
System
Description
Interface (SDI)
for
COSSAP
v_ent
Design
Data
Base
(DDB)
VPG
C
A
B
Scheduler
COSSAPGuidelines
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 36
Results of Industrial Deployment
Design effort for manual VP creation
[Person-hours]
Component
Structural
Functional
Total
DPE
8
25
33
SYNC
17
39
56
DUD
12
43
55
Total = 144 person-hours
A matter of seconds!!!
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 37
Verification (1)
Today, about 70% of
development time is
verification
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 38
Verification (2)
 With such high complexity, a complete
verification on every level is not
possible!
 The higher the design level, the faster
the simulation time
 Run all but one module (DUT) on highest
possible design levels.
 Generate test vectors automatically for all
design levels.
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 39
Automatic Test Pattern Reuse
Direct I/O
Registers
Memory
HA1
HA2
Memory image
…

Bus
DSP
DMA
C test
program
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 40
Float/Fixed Conversion Environment
Float
SDI
Generation
Hybrid
SSD
Optimisation
Evaluation
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 42
Float to Fix Conversion Results
{8,16,32}
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
{16}
slide 43
Float to Fix Conversion Results
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 44

Outline
Why Mobile Communications?
 Problems in the Design of Wireless Systems
 Complexity Gap
 Design Productivity Gap
 Problems and Solutions
 Parallelism, IP-Reuse, Predictive Design
 Inconsistent Design, Lack of Tool Support, Refinement
Techniques, Design Languages, Automatic HW/SW Partitioning
 Virtual Prototyping, Automatic Testing and Verification,
Automatic Float to Fix Conversion
 Static Code Analysis, automatic DFG and CFG Generation, Code
Understanding and Interpretation
 Low Power and Power aware Designs
 Software Defined Radio
 Conclusions
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 45
Process Graph Representation
Process (CFG)
Basic Block (DFG)
a
b c
BB1
+
BB2
BB3
BB4
*
z
BB5
 Process is represented as CFG
 One Basic Block consists of a DFG
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 46
Control Flow Graph of an FIR Filter
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 47
CFG Example
 E.g. function of a
Delay Profile Estimator
 Basic Blocks and function
are annotated with properties
 Operations +,-,*
 Control if, jmp
 Loop counter
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 48
Power Aware Design
POWER REDUCTION OPPORTUNITIES
SYSTEM LEVEL
7 - 20X
BEHAVIORAL LEVEL
RT LEVEL
2 – 5X
LOGIC LEVEL
TRANSISTOR LEVEL
20 – 50 %
LAYOUT LEVEL
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 49
Power Reduction
 Dynamic Methods
 Sleep modes
 Dynamic frequency scaling (DFS)
 Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS)
 Reducing Switching Activity
 Clock gating
 Minimization of glitches
 Reducing number of operations
 Adapting Process Technology
 Reducing capacitance
 Reducing leakage current
 Reducing supply voltage
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 50

Outline
Why Mobile Communications?
 Problems in the Design of Wireless Systems
 Complexity Gap
 Design Productivity Gap
 Problems and Solutions
 Parallelism, IP-Reuse, Predictive Design
 Inconsistent Design, Lack of Tool Support, Refinement
Techniques, Design Languages, Automatic HW/SW Partitioning
 Virtual Prototyping, Automatic Testing and Verification,
Automatic Float to Fix Conversion
 Static Code Analysis, automatic DFG and CFG Generation, Code
Understanding and Interpretation
 Low Power and Power aware Designs
 Software Defined Radio
 Conclusions
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 51
Software Defined Radio
 What is the next step in direction automatic
chip design?
 Software design is cheaper than Hardware
design (also faster).
 Why not designing a new and very flexible
HW platform, so flexible that algorithmic
descriptions can directly be run on it
runtime reconfigurable HW?
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 52
Software Defined Radio
Channel
RF access
(front-end)
IF
processing
Baseband
Modem
Processin
g
Bitstream
processin
g
Information
Security
Joint
Control
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
Data
Interface
Speech
CODEC &
Interface
Man
Machine
Interface
slide 53
Software Defined Radio
 RF front-end in software form?
 Yes, in FM receiver for cars (100MHz)
 No, for low power
 Fascinating Research topic for the
coming years!
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 54
Software Defined Radio
 One platform could support many different
standards like GSM,UMTS,WLAN, Bluetooth,
UWB…
 New standards would simply require a
software download and then the terminal
would already work…
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 55
Benefits SDR
 Manufacturer‘s view:
 Concentrate R&D on smaller HW platform
 Applicable to every cellular system
 Spread development cost not over one product but entire product
family.
 Mass production at lower costs, SW can be updated/debugged in
steps
 Operator‘s view:




New services can be implemented later
Differentiation from other operators
All services available regardless of standards
Multi-standard base stations
 User‘s view:
 Roaming in every cellular system
 Personal terminal configuration
 Increased HW lifetime
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 56
Software Defined Radio
 Activity already in this direction by
www.sdrforum.org
 A forum to support Open Architecture
Reconfigurable Wireless Technology
 With more than 130 members
 However, after some years of visionary
ideas, now mode of practical applications…
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 57
Software Defined Radio

SCA: Software Communication Architecture

Standardization started 2002.

Start-ups for flexible HW structures
 developed by Communication Research centre Canada (CRC), Harris
Corporation and supported by SDR-Forum
 Open architecture
 Java (CRC) , C++ (Harris) based
 Experimental RTOS von Wind River (Posix compliant)
 The SCA can be seen as an operating environment responsible for deploying
and interconnecting the signal processing objects of an SDR.
 Need to be power aware
 Need to be reprogrammed quickly
 RTOS for HW?
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 58
Conclusions
 Gap between algorithmic demands and design
productivity increases.
 Not one tool suite from one vendor will be
the single solution for an efficient design
flow.
 A new design flow environment
 has to make manual tasks automatic
 has to provide the flexibility for the user to
incorporate new tools, and
 has to give the freedom to adapt the flow to his
specific needs.
 SDR technology emerges…
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 59
Contacts
 Markus Rupp: mrupp@nt.tuwien.ac.at
 Link: http://www.nt.tuwien.ac.at/cdlab/
 Diplom- und Forschungsarbeiten…
Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Design Methodology of
Signal Processing Algorithms
slide 60