IP-Based design reuse for analog systems

The design flow of Analog and Mixed Signal has to be improved. In a specific application, we propose a definition of the IP content and the structure of an IP-based library. The case study consists in the neuron-level integration of a complete system that emulates spiking neural networks. As it is often the case, the development of the analog part of the system requires the largest amount of time, due to the lack of formalism and automation in that domain. One solution to accelerate the analog design cycle is to re-use already designed blocks and accumulated design knowledge, which could be illustrated by the IP (Intellectual Property) concept. Indeed, an experience of about ten years and 19 designed ASICs allow now to have an accurate idea of the system hierarchy and the recurrent analog blocks, which is the basis of IPbased design. We will describe the IP-based library which has been developed for that specific application domain and show how it can be used to accelerate the design cycle of the next ASIC generation.