Cadence has announced launch of AI powered EDA tool-suite Conformal AI Studio to address the Semiconductor chip design industry requirement of higher productivity and quick turnout of complex designs such as AI chips for hyperscalers and application processors for smartphones with reliability. This suite includes logic equivalence checking (LEC), automated functional engineering change orders (ECOs), and low-power static signoff products.
Conformal AI Studio has built in capability of artificial intelligence and machine learning and leverage fully distributed and multi-threaded computing capabilities. The engine inside these tools is fast enough to handle full-chip power signoff of designs with billions of instances. Conformal AI Studio uses new algorithms, simplified setups and AI enabled flows for LEC and ECO solutions. Cadence Conformal is a trusted flow-agnostic LEC tool, now with this set of tools cadence is addressing today's design challenges by fully leveraging Cadence JedAI big data platform and ML-driven Cadence Cerebrus putting its LLM strengths to good use.
CW Ko, Deputy General Manager, Silicon Product Development at MediaTek said the trials of Cadence Conformal AI Studio could generate 83% smaller tactical ECO patches using the new Conformal AI ECO flows compared to their prior solution, and in nearly half the runtime. and Conformal AI Low Power’s fast power-state-table analysis enhancement is consistently delivering over 100X improvement in both runtime and memory.
Peter Bell, director of digital design and verification methodology at Renesas Electronics also praised this product where he said "A collection of new Smart ECO technologies has sped up our automated functional ECO flow runtimes by 50% or more while maintaining or improving patch quality; one critical ECO achieving a 90% shrink.Our teams engaged early with Cadence JedAI dashboards available in Conformal AI Studio and are convinced the cross-project insights they uncover will help designers and managers to better track their LEC jobs and automated ECO runs across the course of a project."
Cadence said "The new Smart ECO flow in Conformal AI ECO has delivered up to 10X better runtime and patch sizes for early partners. This innovative approach utilizes RTL-level information and new Boolean “Smart Cut” optimization algorithms to manage designs featuring multiple hierarchies and advanced datapaths. The AI-driven ECO patch recipe selection also makes implementing functional ECOs simple and efficient."
Cadence lists and explains its Conformal AI Studio innovations are available in three below core products:
Conformal AI Equivalence – Enables distributed Boolean logical equivalence checking, AI dashboards, and ML-driven proof engines
Conformal AI ECO – Automates pre- and post-mask functional ECO generation, creating high-quality, efficient, and implementable patches that ensure schedule predictability
Conformal AI Low Power – Verifies that low-power circuit structures in complex SoCs match the design’s power intent using distributed and hierarchical flows and performs efficient two-design low-power compare.
