Synopsys Launches PrimeSim Continuum's Solution

Synopsys recently announced the launch of the PrimeSim Continuum solution at its World User Conference (SNUG). This solution is a unified workflow of circuit simulation technology, which can accelerate the creation and sign-off of super-convergent designs. PrimeSim Continuum is the foundation of Synopsys' custom design platform. It is based on the next-generation SPICE and FastSPICE architecture and PCB board. It is the industry's only proven GPU acceleration technology,  providing design teams with 10 times the runtime improvement and golden sign-off accuracy. PrimeSim Continuum can provide an integrated solution composed of leading simulation engines, including PrimeSim SPICE, PrimeSim Pro, PrimeSim HSPICE, and PrimeSim XA. The PrimeWave design environment enables a seamless simulation experience around all PrimeSim engines, provides comprehensive analysis, higher efficiency, and is easy to use.

Sassine Ghazi, chief operating officer of Synopsys, said: “Synopsys is committed to realizing the future of technological innovation by continuously pushing the performance boundaries of analog, mixed-signal, memory, and digital design automation. Computing acceleration has brought revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of circuit simulation innovation and set a new benchmark for EDA solutions. The next-generation technology of PrimeSim Continuum is a supplement to our modern custom design platform and Verification Continuum. Now our customers in all aspects of the design can benefit from our years of R&D investment, innovation, and customer collaboration."

Today's super-convergent SoCs contain larger and faster-embedded memories, analog devices, and complex input/output circuits, and communicate with DRAM stacks that are designed in a system-in-package and connected on the same silicon chip at a transmission rate of more than 100Gb. As advanced technology process nodes bring more parasitics, process variability, and smaller margins, the challenges associated with verifying complex designs increase. This leads to the need for more simulations with higher accuracy and longer runtime, which affects the overall SoC design time, quality, and cost. PrimeSim Continuum solves the system complexity problem of this type of super-convergent design through a unified workflow of a sign-off quality simulation engine optimized for analog, mixed-signal, RF, custom digital, and memory designs. PrimeSim Continuum uses next-generation SPICE and FastSPICE architectures and heterogeneous computing to optimize the utilization of CPU and GPU resources and reduce the time and cost of design verification.

Shigeo (Jeff) Ohshima, Director of SSD Application Engineering at Kioxia, said: "Kioxia memory design integrates complex systems, including storage, analog, mixed-signal, and custom digital modules, and requires different designs and sign-off technologies. We need a common Convergence workflow of circuit simulation solutions to achieve our time and cost goals. Synopsys’ PrimeSim Continuums is an integrated solution that integrates the best SPICE and FastSPICE technologies to meet our complex design’s accuracy, Accuracy, Speed ​​, and capacity requirements. The PrimeWave design environment provides a universal workflow that covers all simulation requirements, enabling Kioxia's memory design to be signed off. Effective collaboration and acquisition of next-generation technologies are the cornerstones of our cooperation with Synopsys."

Introduced the next-generation FastSPICE architecture to achieve performance acceleration

As an important part of PrimeSim Continuum, Synopsys PrimeSim Pro emulator represents the next generation of FastSPICE architecture for fast and high-capacity analysis of modern DRAM and flash memory designs.
Jung Yun Choi, corporate vice president of Samsung Electronics’ storage design technology team, said: “The continuous technological expansion and innovation surrounding the DRAM architecture has brought larger and more complex memory chip designs that require higher simulation performance and capacity. PrimeSim Pro is the next-generation product in our record-breaking FastSPICE simulator program, which can provide up to 5 times the performance acceleration on our all-chip power supply network design. The next-generation architecture of PrimeSim Pro can meet the capacity requirements of our advanced memory design, allowing Us can achieve extremely challenging time goals."

Heterogeneous computing acceleration based on CPU/GPU

The next-generation architecture of Synopsys PrimeSim SPICE simulator uses unique GPU technology to achieve significant performance improvements to meet the needs of a comprehensive analysis of simulation and RF design while meeting the accuracy requirements of sign-off.

Edward Lee, vice president of mixed-signal design at NVIDIA, said: "With the development of modern computing workloads, the scale and complexity of analog design has exceeded the capabilities of traditional circuit simulators. Based on NVIDIA GPUs, PrimeSim SPICE can accelerate circuit simulations, especially It is possible to shorten the sign-off time for analog modules from a few days to a few hours."

Jaehong Park, executive vice president and head of wafer design platform development at Samsung Electronics, said: "With the rigor of advanced process nodes and the increasing complexity of design, we are committed to supporting our mutual customers through innovative simulation technology to shorten Verification and analysis cycle. Synopsys PrimeSim Continuum adopts a unified workflow of advanced simulation engines, uses heterogeneous computing acceleration in our latest 56Gbit Ethernet design, and achieves 10 times speedup and golden SPICE accuracy, which will reduce the time required for verification. The days have been shortened to a few hours."

Unified workflow for super-convergent design analysis and sign-off

PrimeSim Continuum solution integrates PrimeSim SPICE and PrimeSim Pro into PrimeSim HSPICE simulator (a gold standard sign-off reference for basic IP and signal integrity) and PrimeSim XA simulator (leading FastSPICE technology for SRAM and mixed-signal verification). PrimeWave provides a unified and flexible environment on all PrimeSim Continuum engines to optimize design settings, analysis, and post-processing to provide a seamless experience.