IC設計公司CAD環境平台之研究

Abstract

CAD部門在IC Design House中，看似只是擔任支援性質的部門，其實對整體產品設計之產能，時程及良率都有很大的影響。CAD環境在建構時需考慮到成本，IC設計產品的類型，未來擴充性，變更的彈性，災難復原能力，異地備援等等。半導體技術一直不斷的推進，IC 設計公司對CAD環境中的軟硬體投入成本，也越來越大。如何能在一開始計劃CAD環境時，就能建出最適用的架構，而不會浪費太多人力及金錢，此為本研究所欲探討的主題。

CAD環境架構分三大部份：1. 軟體部份為EDA（Electronic Design Automation，EDA）軟體；2. CAD環境的硬體方面：主要是以網路設備，工作站，伺服器，存放資料的NAS(Network attach Storage)，繪圖機，印表機，做備份的磁帶櫃，不斷電系統等等。3. 作業系統主要以UNIX及LINUX為主。本研究採用個案研究法，就四家IC設計公司及一家硬體廠商進行訪談，就其訪談資料加以評比分析，顯示其現有的CAD環境架構與期望改進的CAD環境架構之差異性，無法達成理想之理由，使用者與CAD人員對整體環境架構之滿意度及需求分析等等。

本研究經由分析訪談資料得知，小型IC設計公司較無法在一開始就建構出最理想的CAD環境架構，最大理由乃為成本與公司經營策略；但大型公司卻會在成立出即提出一筆預算，用來架構最適合及理想的CAD環境。也因此小型IC設計公司需仰賴有經驗的CAD人員來彌補架構不足之處。架構的完善與否，將會影響到IC產品開發整個時程，進而影響公司的生產力，值得高階主管再考量。

In IC Design House, CAD department is not just a support department but a department that influences the productivity, schedule and yield of a company. When build up a CAD environment, it must consider some factors, such like cost, IC design product type , system extending, flexibility, recovery and backup in different regions. As semiconductor manufacturing enhances its ability, CAD environment in IC Design House needs more investment. How to plan a budget for CAD environment is the main topic of this research. There are three different portions in CAD environment:1. Software: include Electronic Design Automation (EDA);2. Hardware: network equipments, workstations, servers, Network Attach Storage (NAS), plotters, printers, tape storages and UPS; 3. Operation Systems: UNIX or LINUX. This research uses case study to interview with four IC design companies and a hardware provider and analysis these interview data. These data can show the CAD architectures of four different cases, find out the problems which can be improved, find the difficult of CAD environment implementation and understand the satisfactions of users and CAD engineers. The findings of this research shows that a small IC design company can not build up a satisfy environment when company initiation. The most important reason is cost efficiency and corporate strategy. On the contrary, a big IC design company has plenty budget and build up a better CAD environment than that of a small company. Hence, a small company needs engineers who have know-how to build up a CAD environment.