Adoption of platforms for AI processor design

13th February 2020

Mentor

Alex Lynn

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Mentor, a Siemens business, has announced that Mythic, an artificial intelligence (AI) processor company, has standardised on Mentor’s Analog FastSPICE Platform for AI processor design, custom circuit verification and device noise analysis. Additionally, Mythic has selected Mentor’s Symphony Mixed-Signal Platform to help verify the functionality of the integrated analog and digital logic in its Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs).

“Mythic IPUs leverage analog computing to perform the calculations required for deep neural network (DNN) inference inside flash memory arrays. This requires us to simulate thousands of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) at extremely demanding accuracy specifications,” said Ty Garibay, Vice President of Engineering at Mythic.

“We selected Mentor’s Analog FastSPICE Platform because it can deliver nanometre-scale SPICE accurate results and five times productivity improvement compared to other solutions. Additionally, the full-spectrum device noise analyses help demonstrate excellent correlation with measured silicon. The Symphony Mixed-Signal Platform helped us extend our verification coverage to include the analog-to-digital interface in our IPUs.”

Mentor’s Analog FastSPICE Platform provides circuit verification for nanometre analog, radio frequency (RF), mixed-signal, memory, and custom digital circuits. Foundry certified to 5nm, the platform delivers nanometre-scale SPICE accuracy two times faster than parallel SPICE simulators. To help ensure silicon-accurate characterisation, the platform includes comprehensive, full-spectrum device noise analysis.

Mentor’s Symphony Mixed-Signal Platform, powered by the Analog FastSPICE solution, offers fast and accurate mixed-signal verification with industry-standard HDL simulators to provide verification of complex nanometre-scale mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) with an intuitive use model, powerful debugging capabilities and configuration support.

"We are excited that Mythic has selected Mentor’s Analog FastSPICE and Symphony platforms for their AI processor verification and characterisation flow," added Ravi Subramanian, Vice President and General Manager for the IC Verification Solutions Division of Mentor, a Siemens business. “New AI hardware architectures, such as those used in Mythic’s analog compute-in-memory technology, are really pushing the boundaries of verification. It is rewarding to see our simulation technologies address these new verification challenges and help our customers achieve aggressive time-to-market objectives.”