Logic Circuit Synthesis Labs

Logic Circuit Synthesis Lab

LogiCS Labs provide research activities in computing models and algorithms related to digital integrated circuit design flow optimization in terms of performance, power consumption, silicon area and noise immunity, at different deisgn levels: logical (technology mapping), electrical (transistor network) and physical (layout). ASIC design is also included in the team tasks as a way to verify and validate the proposed CAD tools and methods. It is registered as a Research Group at CNPq, with the name "Ferramentas Computacionais para Projeto de Circuitos e Sistemas Integrados" (in Portuguese). It also aggregates the activites of the Nangate-UFRGS Research Lab, in the scope of this R&D agreement.

Synaptic Project - FP7 European Community

Synaptic consortium started in Nov.2009, for three years of collaboration, with research funding from European Community, and is composed of leading institutions, including four international companies (Nangate A/S, STMicroelectronics, Thales Group and Leading Edge S.N.C.), a European world-leading research institute in the field of nanoeletronics (IMEC – Belgium), and three academic institutions (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Spain, Politecnico di Milano – Italy and UFRGS – Brazil).

This project addresses the “Design of Semiconductor Components and Electronic Based Miniaturised Systems” by development of “methods and tools to cope with the design challenges in the next generations of technologies”, and focuses on the objective “design for manufacturability taking into account increased variability of new processes”. In particular, the project targets the optimization of manufacturability and the reduction of systematic variations in nanometer technologies through exploitation of regularity at the architectural, structural, and geometrical levels.

UFRGS - Nangate A/S Agreement

The joint research agreement between UFRGS and Nangate A/S, started in October 2005, focusing on research and development activities, as well as on human resources development in the fields of EDA and microelectronics, emphasizing the particular domain of logic digital integrated circuit design. Some topics of interest are the automatic determination of cell library parameters for power, density and timing optimization goals; analytical methods for timing, power and noise characterization for logic cells; automatic logic cell generation, with emphasis on the impact at global circuit level.
This R&D collaboration promoted the creation of Nangate do Brasil S.A., hosted at the Entrepreneur Center for Informatics (CEI/UFRGS) from Oct. 2005 to Dec. 2009. The access to industrial information, that represents one the most important barrier in research centers with a solely academic profile, has allowed the realization of investigation activities focused on real applications.

As a result, PhD, master and undergraduate students have academic and industrial research experience, and some of them have had the opportunity to join the Nangate Corporation in Denmark, USA and Brazil.

CNPq Research Group - CAD Tools for Digital Integrated Circuits

LogiCS Labs is registred at National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) refered as the research group named Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Tools for Integrated Circuit (in Portuguese, "Ferramentas Computacionais para Projeto de Circuitos e Sistemas Integrados"). CNPq is a governmental agency linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), dedicated to the promotion of scientific and technological research and preparation of human resources for research and innovation activities in Brazil.