Azuro
Encyclopedia
Azuro, Inc. is an electronic design automation
(EDA) software company. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California
with a development office in Cambridge
, England.
Azuro develops software for the design of integrated circuit
s. Azuro specializes in clock network
implementation. Azuro's PowerCentric product takes an innovative approach to clock network
implementation that produces lower power clock networks with lower clock skew
and shorter insertion delay using a smaller area of the integrated circuit
than competing tools.
Azuro has been particularly focussed on lower power design. In synchronous circuit
designs all changes of state
are coordinated by a clock
, and this clock edge must be distributed to all parts of the chip. Since the clock signal is distributed throughout the entire circuit it can consume a large percentage of the energy used. Azuro's technology allows clock gating
and clock network
implementation to be combined as a single step, allowing the clock to be prevented from reaching parts of the chip where it is not needed more effectively than competing technologies. The company has a number of patents in the area of low power design, clock tree synthesis and power analysis.
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
(EDA) software company. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
with a development office in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England.
Azuro develops software for the design of integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
s. Azuro specializes in clock network
Clock network
A clock network or clock system is a set of clocks designed to always show exactly the same time by communicating with each other. Clock networks usually include a central master clock kept in sync with an official time source, and one or more slave clocks which receive and display the time from...
implementation. Azuro's PowerCentric product takes an innovative approach to clock network
Clock network
A clock network or clock system is a set of clocks designed to always show exactly the same time by communicating with each other. Clock networks usually include a central master clock kept in sync with an official time source, and one or more slave clocks which receive and display the time from...
implementation that produces lower power clock networks with lower clock skew
Skew
Skew may refer to:In mathematics:* Skew lines, lines that are neither parallel nor intersecting* Skew-symmetric matrix, a square matrix whose transpose is also its negative...
and shorter insertion delay using a smaller area of the integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
than competing tools.
Azuro has been particularly focussed on lower power design. In synchronous circuit
Synchronous circuit
A synchronous circuit is a digital circuit in which the parts are synchronized by a clock signal.In an ideal synchronous circuit, every change in the logical levels of its storage components is simultaneous. These transitions follow the level change of a special signal called the clock...
designs all changes of state
State (computer science)
In computer science and automata theory, a state is a unique configuration of information in a program or machine. It is a concept that occasionally extends into some forms of systems programming such as lexers and parsers....
are coordinated by a clock
Clock signal
In electronics and especially synchronous digital circuits, a clock signal is a particular type of signal that oscillates between a high and a low state and is utilized like a metronome to coordinate actions of circuits...
, and this clock edge must be distributed to all parts of the chip. Since the clock signal is distributed throughout the entire circuit it can consume a large percentage of the energy used. Azuro's technology allows clock gating
Clock gating
Clock gating is a power-saving technique used in many synchronous circuits-Description:Clock gating is a popular technique used in many synchronous circuits for reducing dynamic power dissipation. Clock gating saves power by adding more logic to a circuit to prune the clock tree...
and clock network
Clock network
A clock network or clock system is a set of clocks designed to always show exactly the same time by communicating with each other. Clock networks usually include a central master clock kept in sync with an official time source, and one or more slave clocks which receive and display the time from...
implementation to be combined as a single step, allowing the clock to be prevented from reaching parts of the chip where it is not needed more effectively than competing technologies. The company has a number of patents in the area of low power design, clock tree synthesis and power analysis.
See also
- Electronic design automationElectronic design automationElectronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
- Design flow (EDA)Design flow (EDA)Design flows are the explicit combination of electronic design automation tools to accomplish the design of an integrated circuit. Moore's law has driven the entire IC implementation RTL to GDSII design flows from one which uses primarily...
- Integrated circuit designIntegrated circuit designIntegrated circuit design, or IC design, is a subset of electrical engineering and computer engineering, encompassing the particular logic and circuit design techniques required to design integrated circuits, or ICs...