Altair Case Studies Accelerating VLSI Design and Reducing Regression Testing Time with Altair Accelerator

	Accelerating VLSI Design and Reducing Regression Testing Time with Altair Accelerator Altair

Accelerating VLSI Design and Reducing Regression Testing Time with Altair Accelerator

Altair

Technology Category	Networks & Connectivity - 5G
Applicable Industries	Cement Construction & Infrastructure
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Computer Vision Time Sensitive Networking
Challenge	CEVA, a leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies, faced a significant challenge in managing their engineering resources and speeding up their VLSI development flows. As an IP design and licensing company, CEVA's most critical metrics are time-to-market and engineering efficiency. The challenge was to allow the engineering team to work as if they have no constraints, enabling easy access to hardware compute servers, EDA licenses, and automated design flows without exceeding a project’s R&D budget. The team at CEVA selected the Altair Accelerator™ job scheduler for their VLSI workflows to address this challenge. Read More
About Customer	CEVA is a leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies. Their ultra-low-power IPs include comprehensive DSP-based platforms for 5G baseband processing in mobile and infrastructure, AI processors for neural network workloads, advanced imaging and computer vision for any camera-enabled device, and audio/voice/speech and ultra-low power always-on/sensing applications for multiple IoT markets. Over 12 billion CEVA-powered chips have been shipped worldwide, serving a wide range of diverse end markets. CEVA has been using Altair Accelerator™ technology for years to manage engineering resources and speed up VLSI development flows. Read More
Solution	Altair Accelerator was chosen as the solution to CEVA's challenge. The Accelerator is designed to saturate resources while allowing time-critical jobs to start executing immediately. It provides a single queue model that enables all design engineers to see their jobs in the context of others and understand why a particular job is waiting. This clarity allows design teams to self-regulate and choose the best approach for sharing critical resources. The Accelerator also features a preemption system that can detect when time-critical jobs are waiting and make immediate adjustments to running jobs. This system is rule-based, allowing CEVA to modify policies as needed. Additionally, the Accelerator's license-to-job matching allows a job’s license utilization to be profiled along with RAM & CPU usage, enabling the management team to optimize future resource spend. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - 5G

Applicable Industries

Cement

Construction & Infrastructure

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Computer Vision

Time Sensitive Networking

Challenge

CEVA, a leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies, faced a significant challenge in managing their engineering resources and speeding up their VLSI development flows. As an IP design and licensing company, CEVA's most critical metrics are time-to-market and engineering efficiency. The challenge was to allow the engineering team to work as if they have no constraints, enabling easy access to hardware compute servers, EDA licenses, and automated design flows without exceeding a project’s R&D budget. The team at CEVA selected the Altair Accelerator™ job scheduler for their VLSI workflows to address this challenge.

About Customer

CEVA is a leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies. Their ultra-low-power IPs include comprehensive DSP-based platforms for 5G baseband processing in mobile and infrastructure, AI processors for neural network workloads, advanced imaging and computer vision for any camera-enabled device, and audio/voice/speech and ultra-low power always-on/sensing applications for multiple IoT markets. Over 12 billion CEVA-powered chips have been shipped worldwide, serving a wide range of diverse end markets. CEVA has been using Altair Accelerator™ technology for years to manage engineering resources and speed up VLSI development flows.

Solution

Altair Accelerator was chosen as the solution to CEVA's challenge. The Accelerator is designed to saturate resources while allowing time-critical jobs to start executing immediately. It provides a single queue model that enables all design engineers to see their jobs in the context of others and understand why a particular job is waiting. This clarity allows design teams to self-regulate and choose the best approach for sharing critical resources. The Accelerator also features a preemption system that can detect when time-critical jobs are waiting and make immediate adjustments to running jobs. This system is rule-based, allowing CEVA to modify policies as needed. Additionally, the Accelerator's license-to-job matching allows a job’s license utilization to be profiled along with RAM & CPU usage, enabling the management team to optimize future resource spend.

Impact #1	The implementation of Altair Accelerator has allowed CEVA engineers to maximize the use of available resources in a manner that suits their design approach. Software and hardware constraints are managed with confidence using close monitoring, historical statistics, and defined workflow policies. This has resulted in multiple VLSI projects being completed successfully and on time. CEVA maintains tight control on costs and benefits with a detailed view into resource usage by projects and users. The Accelerator's preemption feature has enabled the creation of an advanced suspend-resume mechanism, allowing for full utilization of simulation licenses and 24/7 regressions without disrupting the work of daily users.

Impact #1

The implementation of Altair Accelerator has allowed CEVA engineers to maximize the use of available resources in a manner that suits their design approach. Software and hardware constraints are managed with confidence using close monitoring, historical statistics, and defined workflow policies. This has resulted in multiple VLSI projects being completed successfully and on time. CEVA maintains tight control on costs and benefits with a detailed view into resource usage by projects and users. The Accelerator's preemption feature has enabled the creation of an advanced suspend-resume mechanism, allowing for full utilization of simulation licenses and 24/7 regressions without disrupting the work of daily users.

Benefit #1	100% constant license utilization
Benefit #2	Full utilization of simulation licenses
Benefit #3	24/7 regressions without disrupting the work of daily users

Benefit #1

100% constant license utilization

Benefit #2

Full utilization of simulation licenses

Benefit #3

24/7 regressions without disrupting the work of daily users

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Overview

Accelerating VLSI Design and Reducing Regression Testing Time with Altair Accelerator

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit