More Moore: Does It Mean Mixed-Signal Integration or Disintegration?

The continuing pursuit of “Moore’s Law” is presenting formidable challenges for realizing ultra-complex system-on-chips as we approach the 20nm technology node and beyond. A structural shift in the semiconductor industry has now created a playing field that greatly benefits integrators of mixed-signal systems. For all the participants, “More Moore” seems to simply mean “Moore Stress.” But it has also come to mean “Moore Opportunity.” In this talk, we will focus on the mixed-signal design challenges in the new era of such process scaling and massive integration, and what it will take to succeed.

Increasing scaling poses some very fundamental questions about integrating mixed-signal functionality. Analog and RF circuits, it is claimed, cannot take advantage of reduced feature size, whereas digital circuits can. Many new first-order effects appear, wreaking havoc on the ‘old ways’ of doing things. Aspects of scaling that benefit the digital side hurt analog. Yet both the number and type of unique analog, RF, and mixed-signal circuits on such SoCs is rapidly growing- and the performance and power requirements for these circuits are sometimes unbelievable. “Analog is Rising” in conjunction with “More Moore.” Achieving high-performance power-efficient mixed-signal circuits working within these ultra-complex SoCs requires fundamental and concurrent innovations at the system architecture (what function in which chip), circuit architecture (which circuit for a given function) and design technology levels (what tools and methodology to use to verify circuit and IC performance and power). In this talk, we will take a close look at the fundamental questions being raised about integrating mixed-signal functionality, and some of the new above-mentioned innovations that are forcing some changes to the usual answers. The economics of designing at these deep nanometer nodes makes investing in these three areas essential to the success of the nanometer mixed-signal era and in making “More Moore” a reality.

About the speaker:

Ravi Subramanian is President & CEO of Berkeley Design Automation Inc. (BDA), the recognized technology leader in the verification of mixed-signal ICs with over 120 customers worldwide. BDA was recognized in 2011 and again in 2012 as one of the 500 fastest growing technology companies by revenue in North America by Deloitte. With over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor, wireless communications, and electronic design industries, Ravi is a respected wireless communications and semiconductor technologist as well as an entrepreneur. Prior to joining BDA in 2003, Ravi was VP-GM of the WCDMA/SMS business group of Infineon Technologies. Ravi assumed this role via Infineon's acquisition of Morphics Technology, a fabless semiconductor company developing multi-protocol CDMA wireless communications ICs that Ravi co-founded and then led as CEO. As a Director at Synopsys, Ravi held marketing and business line responsibilities for DSP Solutions. Before that, while leading the Wireless Communications Research Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Ravi was a key member of the team that developed the world's first GSM merchant chipset, for which he won the AT&T Leadership Award. Ravi has a Ph.D. degree in EECS from University of California Berkeley, where he was a recipient of the prestigious UC Regent's Fellowship. Ravi received his BSEE (with honors) from the California Institute of Technology (1987). He is the lead author on 17 issued United States patents on advanced signal processing techniques in wireless communications. Ravi has been named on the RutbergCo’s Wireless Influencers list every year from 2006 to 2012. In his spare time, he loves the mountains and most recently completed an overnight ascent of Mt. Fuji.