• Challenge:
  • Magma's compute-intensive design software system requires access to large amounts of data and can require large amounts of memory.
  • Until the release of the AMD Opteron™ processor, computing performance had been a problem.
• Solution:
  • Magma selected an AMD Opteron processor-powered system because it provided the ideal combination of computing performance, memory accessibility and scalability.
  • Magma's software runs faster on AMD Opteron processor-based systems. In fact, even when running the 32-bit software version, Magma estimates that AMD Opteron processor-based systems deliver a 2x bump in performance, enabling practical runtimes to be achieved on even the most complex designs.
• Impact:
  • One of Magma's customers recently used their software to implement a networking component that had 18 million gates and over 2100 pins. The advanced processing capacity enabled by AMD64 technology allowed the project to be completed in less than three months (after the initial design exploration).
  • Magma's customers have also been pleased with the EDA leader's move to AMD64 technology because it gives them the ability to stay within the x86 universe while benefiting from significant performance increases.

Organizational Profile
Magma provides leading software for designing highly complex integrated circuits. Based in Santa Clara, CA, and trading under the NASDAQ ticker symbol LAVA, Magma provides it customers with a complete design flow to ensure “The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon.”™ Magma's software includes design planning, prototyping, synthesis, place & route, and signal and power integrity chip design capabilities in a single executable. Magma licenses its semiconductor design software to engineers, manufacturers and electronic products companies around the world. Among them: Broadcom, Infineon, NEC Electronics, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and Vitesse. The company's Web site is www.magma-da.com.

Challenge
With the exploding demand for feature-rich -- yet smaller, faster and cheaper -- electronic devices in the consumer and industrial markets and the emergence of nanometer semiconductor process technology, integrated circuit (ICs) providers are finding it increasingly difficult to meet their shrinking design-to-market windows. Higher levels of circuit density are driving an almost exponential growth in the size and complexity of the design and analysis process, and power minimization and new design challenges must be addressed. Failure to identify and correct problems early in the design process can result in a chip that cannot be manufactured, may exceed power constraints, or have a problem that might not be identified until the chip is tested in a prototype product.

The potential consequences of this, such as cost overruns, schedule delays, or even a defective product released to customers, could have catastrophic implications. Accordingly, IC providers turn to electronic design automation (EDA) providers, like Magma, for software solutions that will enable them to handle the increased design complexity while accelerating the design and analysis process.

To develop a software system that addresses current IC design requirements, Magma started from scratch. Instead of creating disjointed point tools that are based on their own unique data bases and address only a single step in the design process, Magma created an integrated software system that is delivered in a single executable and is based on a common data model (there is a significant difference between a data "base" and a data "model"). With a common data model, the Magma software system can quickly and accurately analyze the impact of a change to one design parameter on all other design parameters. This unique architecture allows the system to concurrently address various design issues while continually analyzing and adjusting the design to improve performance, timing and area of a chip.

Because of the enormous amount of design data and complex operations, Magma's software system is highly compute intensive and requires quick access to large amounts of data. And, depending on the size and complexity of the design, the software can require large amounts of memory. Magma provides 32- and 64-bit versions of its software.

Until the release of the AMD Opteron™ processor based on AMD64 architecture, computing performance had been a problem. The increasing complexity of designing and verifying nanometer chips had been pushing the limits of the compute power and memory accessibility of the company's variety of large, proprietary systems.

Solution
After performance testing different computing platforms, Magma selected an AMD Opteron processor-powered system because it provided the ideal combination of computing performance, memory accessibility and scalability. The AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture alleviates the bottlenecks inherent in front-side bus architectures by directly connecting the memory, I/O and processors to the central processing unit. Further, AMD's HyperTransport™ technology provides significantly more bandwidth than current technologies, uses low-latency responses and low pin counts and maintains compatibility with legacy PC buses while being extensible to new SNA (Systems Network Architecture) buses.

As a result, Magma's memory- and compute-intensive software runs faster on AMD Opteron processor-based systems. In fact, even when running the 32-bit software version, Magma estimates that AMD Opteron processor-based systems deliver a 2x bump in performance, enabling practical runtimes to be achieved on even the most complex designs.

By integrating the memory controller, the AMD Opteron processor allows memory latency to more closely approach the limits of the memory technology and to improve with processor frequency. This fast access allows Magma's design and analysis engines and in-memory data model to work together more efficiently and to quickly and easily share large amounts of data.

Further, the combination of memory accessibility and HyperTransport technology enables the scalability required to address the increasing size and complexity of nanometer IC designs. The maximum capacity for flat designs for Magma's software using the 32-bit platform is about 4 million gates from high-level description (RTL) to complete implementation (GDSII), but with the AMD Opteron processor, the gate capacity is significantly greater.

“With the right combination of computing performance, memory accessibility and scalability, the AMD Opteron™ processor provides a fast, high-capacity 64-bit platform. When coupled with Magma's advanced software, IC designers can accelerate the design and analysis of the complex semiconductors that are the core of today's sophisticated electronics,” said Nitin Deo, Magma's vice president of product marketing.

Not only does AMD64 technology provide Magma software users with key advantages, the company leverages the AMD64 platform for most of its software development and testing. Over 250 software engineers are continually adding new features and capabilities to the system. Each week the company tests the software enhancements by implementing 120 customer designs ranging in size from a few thousand gates to over 10 million gates. For this extensive development and testing process, Magma invested in clusters that use more than 1000 AMD Opteron processor-based CPUs -- along with some rackable systems.

During testing of certain phases of the IC design and analysis process, Magma is experiencing a 5X productivity jump by using AMD Opteron processor-based systems for 64-bit computing. In some instances, implementation of a design that previously took four to five days now takes only one day using systems powered by the AMD Opteron processor.

According to Nitin Deo, “With such deep and broad requirements, a high-performance 64-bit platform was the only way to implement this chip in the given time frame.” Mr. Deo continued, “Even though IC designs are becoming much more complex, and the depth of analysis requirements keeps increasing, with the Magma software running on our new AMD Opteron processor-based systems, our customers can reduce the overall design to market cycles by as much as 50 percent in most cases, translating to a significant competitive advantage.”

Magma's customers have also been pleased with the EDA leader's move to AMD64 technology because it gives them the ability to stay within the x86 universe while benefiting from significant performance increases. Using AMD Opteron processors and open source Linux, Magma's customers can continue using their 32-bit environments for now while retaining the ability to migrate to 64-bit when it makes sense for them.

“With the right combination of computing performance, memory accessibility and scalability, the AMD Opteron™ processor provides a fast, high-capacity 64-bit platform. When coupled with Magma's advanced software, IC designers can accelerate the design and analysis of the complex semiconductors that are the core of today's sophisticated electronics.” Nitin Deo

About AMD
AMD (NYSE:AMD) designs and produces innovative microprocessors, Flash memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to delivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology users, ranging from enterprises and governments to individual consumers. For more information, visit www.amd.com.