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Accelerating VLSI Design and Reducing Regression Testing Time with Altair Accelerator
Technology Category
- Networks & Connectivity - 5G
Applicable Industries
- Cement
- Construction & Infrastructure
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Computer Vision
- Time Sensitive Networking
The 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 The 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.
The 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.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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