Would custom memory ease your SoC design?

Memory customization is not always a top priority when a design team plans a new system-on-chip (SoC) project. But often it should be.

This may not be an obvious statement. Granted, SRAM claims a lot of area on most SoCs. The speed and power consumption of SRAM arrays can affect the overall chip performance and energy efficiency.

But today’s memory compilers are flexible tools that support a variety of cell designs. At Faraday, for example, the 14FFC compiler offers eight variants, tuned to diverse needs, ranging from high-density to high-performance to ultra-low-power. So why do you consider custom memory?

One answer to the above question is the need for an unusual word or bit length. Relatively simple customization can produce the exact SRAM configuration required for a specific instance, not just the compiler’s closest approximation.

Similarly, there are times during floorplanning—or, more concerningly, during timing closure—when giving an SRAM instance an unusual aspect ratio can ease a difficult situation. This may be a more complex customization, requiring changes to array layout and routing, multiplexers, drivers, and cell designs.

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