Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1467185
38 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2022 and critical design requirements in mind oen overwhelms the designer and design team. Typically, the task of creating a new SoC/chip, its corresponding package, and a new system board(s) involves three different engineer- ing teams with three different perspectives. Although it can be possible to get the different design disciplines together in a coordination meeting, a successful joint plan really requires a methodology, process, and usually some technology and automation for tying these worlds together. ere are three concepts that, when added to traditionally deployed design methods, can enable the creation of an optimal system product: multi-substrate visualization, system- level cross-substrate interconnect untangling, and cross-substrate co-design. Multi-substrate visualization means not solving micro, or sin- gle substrate design issues until you can see the whole picture. Once you step back and look at the whole design, the pieces of the solution start to become clear. When designing a new die such as a proces- sor, the system target is an industry-standard memory chip with a fixed pin-out. Unraveling starts from the system PCB and drives toward the die, as the PCB design domain drives the the chip's buffer block through package routing and on to system PCB implementation. Opti- mizing critical signals down interface paths throughout the system will result in far fewer downstream issues that will require resolution. e traditional path to system design is to know what you need to build, to identify what must be done, and then to design to those requirements. e defense and aerospace industries have had great success enforcing this method of constrained design, especially for complex system designs where the correct- by-construction approach speeds design time, improves quality, and lowers costs by reducing design iterations. e correct-by-construction approach forces designers to make assumptions regard- ing the limiting issues in the design and then to simulate these assumptions in soware before building a physical prototype. Before translat- ing a conceptual design limitation into a physi- cal design constraint, designers must under- stand the source of the challenge and where to go in the design to resolve it. is requires designers and engineers to see the big picture to make good decisions. Visualizing and comprehending the entire multi-substrate design while keeping essential Figure 1: System path uncrossing and route optimization before layout.