R. Peruzzi Consulting, Inc. (RPeruzzi.com)

R. Peruzzi Consulting, Inc.

Robert O. Peruzzi, Ph. D.

Behavioral Modeling and Verification Expert for RF, Analog and Mixed-Signal IC and SOC Designs

Cadence and Mentor Graphics design tools, Verilog-AMS, VHDL-AMS, MATLAB, Simulink and HDL-Coder.

Emphasizing the integration of multiple model views targeted toward

Verification plan driven modeling approach
Fast-executing models using real-value techniques
System-level design exploration
Executable design specs

Why Behavioral Models?

Verification: A complete set of Analog/Mixed-Signal behavioral models is absolutely necessary to verify modern System-on-Chip (SOC) devices or any mixed signal device too large to fit into a Spice simulator. It is especially critical if there are adaptive digital control loops such as automatic gain control or digitally controlled frequency synthesizers or even automated self-calibration. With the cost of today's small geometry mask sets it is irresponsible to neglect functional verification, or to "make do" with less than optimal models.

System Design: Behavioral models can be the link between high level plans using C, Matlab etc. and the detailed design level of RTL and schecmatic. Behavioral models may be executed on the same platform as the final design and their output waveforms graphically displayed side by side and compared to those of the final design. As such, they become an "executable spec" for the final design.

Why a Consultant?

Even though behavioral models are absolutely necessary, their creation and maintenance is not a task required twelve months of every year. A common approach is to add model writing to the tasks of circuit designers, but this is not the best approach because

An expert designer might see writing models as a tedious chore and his or her best efforts may be inadequate, resulting in bugs escaping through the verification net and into the Silicon
Bad models are worse than none at all
Models may have too much detail in the wrong places and unnecessarily slow down simulation
Models may have not enough or too much detail and be too pessimistic or optimistic

A wise alternative is to contract out the modeling work to a consultant such as me, for only as long as needed.

I have more than a dozen years of experience in analog behavioral modeling and verification, and have earned battle scars from finding simulator and language bugs never mentioned in tool vendor's training classes
I have the experience and judgment to precisely create a model with just enough detail to fulfill the verification plan, execute as fast as possible without neglecting necessary detail, and make the model understandable so it can be maintained and modified once my job is complete.

Subpages (3): Contact Me Modeling Approach Recommendations