Productivity Tools For Analog/Mixed-Signal Designs: Ready For Prime Time?

摘要

With the explosion in communication and consumer products, analog design is looming large. However, analog designers―and tools to enhance their productivity―are in very short supply. Development of the analog segments of sophisticated designs may take longer than the digital portion, even though the analog portion is often smaller. Meanwhile, digital designers have synthesis, formal verification, and test pattern-generation tools, among others, at their disposal. They also can create large circuits from high-level languages. So how can greater productivity be achieved in analog design? The highly anticipated solution will let designers synthesize analog and mixed-signal circuits. But until this capability is developed, designers must rely upon evolving answers to the analog challenge.