Allegro X design platform spans multiple engineering domains
Claimed to deliver up to four times productivity compared to traditional design tools, the Cadence Allegro X design platform spaces engineering disciplines for both logical and physical design, says Cadence.
The Cadence Allegro X design platform is believed to be the industry’s first engineering platform for system design that unifies schematic, layout, analysis, design collaboration and data management. Built on Allegro and OrCAD core technology, it streamlines the system design process for engineers and is claimed to offer unparalleled collaboration across all engineering disciplines. There is also integration with Cadence signoff-level simulation and analysis products.
Engineers today increasingly must design and collaborate across multiple domains, including electromagnetic (EM), thermal, signal and power integrity (SI/PI), and logical/physical implementation. The Allegro X platform’s simplified user interaction model is designed to deliver quick technology access and immediate value for novice and expert users. Iterations are minimised and access to both the logical and physical domains simultaneously with concurrent collaboration capabilities across schematic, layout and analysis activities, the Allegro X platform reduces the time and effort to complete the design of complex systems by up to four times compared to legacy design tools, claims Cadence.
The Allegro X platform leverages a hybrid cloud solution that provides scalable compute resources and full technology access while reducing deployment footprints and complexity. Designs can use access Cadence Clarity 3D Solver, Celsius Thermal Solver, Sigrity technology and PSpice for simulation and analysis, Allegro Pulse for design data management, and interoperability with the AWR Microwave Office RF design flow.
Cadence explains that Allegro X leverages GPU technology combined with core architectural optimisation and uses cloud resources to synthesise full or partial PCB designs. Machine learning (ML) techniques concurrently optimise the design for manufacturing, SI and PI requirements while designing the power delivery network, device placement and signal interconnect as specified by the system architect/electrical engineer.
“Engineers now have a framework for logical and physical design, in 2D or 3D, single- or multi-board, that allows them to optimise resources even on the most complex 5G designs, enabled by interoperability with the AWR Microwave Office RF design flow,” said Tom Beckley, senior vice president and general manager of the Custom IC & PCB Group at Cadence
“Harnessing the power of accelerated computing by using Nvidia GPUs enables Cadence’s Allegro X platform to boost performance up to 20X for interactive operations,” said Greg Bodi, director of PCB layout engineering at Nvidia. “This performance improvement delivers our engineers immediate canvas responsiveness and acceleration when 2D rendering complex boards during the design phase,” he added.
“Multi-objective optimisation is a challenging problem,” said Dr. Tomas Palacios, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, reporting “significant progress” towards the synthesis of difficult PCB designs.
The Allegro X Design Platform will be available for general release in Q4 2021.
