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IC Manage GDP Key Features
IC Manage GDP is a reliable, scalable, high performance, multi-site design management system. It contains the following key capabilities:
Derivative Management
Managing multiple designs in parallel
IC Manage GDP allows design managers to track component usage across both revision space and derivative space. When designers
create new derivatives, IC Manage GDP tracks the bi-directional relationships between 'parent and child’. IC Manage GDP easily
propagates changes of an object through all the designs that utilize the object. In contrast to conventional RCS-style branching,
with IC manage GDP there is no need to diff, or manually update all the locations where the object was reused.
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Design Assembly
Faster time to market with reuse
Making an organization’s intellectual property available for reuse by all its design teams is critical for competitiveness. IC
Manage GDP’s component-based model allows project managers to easily mix, match and reuse components and IP blocks developed at
any design site with no scripting. Designers have real-time access to design data, and can easily view the design data history,
select appropriate components, and create designs from any of the enterprise’s IP.
Cross-Coupled Defect Tracking
Linking Defects to Design Changes
It is critical to know that a defect exists. However, in order to recreate the defect and verify it is fixed, it is crucial to
know what design configuration and design version were in use when the defect was discovered. IC Manage GDP links defect and data
state together; eliminating the uncertainty caused by designers guessing the design state when trying to replicate a bug. Instead,
they can synchronize their workspace to the exact state when the bug was reported, fixed or verified, resulting in faster and more
efficient validation and testing.
IC Manage GDP tracks: 1) the design configuration; 2) the design and file versions when the defect was discovered; 3) who fixed the defect; and 4) which files were changed to fix the defect.
Distributed Design and Content Delivery
Real-time data delivery to any site
IC Manage GDP offers a unique near real-time content delivery mechanism as part of its multi-site design collaboration support.
Design teams can push or pull common data, such as process design kits (PDK’s) and internal and external IP, to any site with no
delay. The content delivery architecture minimizes bandwidth usage by ensuring only one copy of a particular version is sent over
the WAN. IC Manage GDP’s stateless caching mechanism prevents incorrect data from being delivered to the remote site in the event
of network disconnects or other errors. Since IC Manage GDP is entirely change-driven, it can automatically detect and propagate
the appropriate content for any workspace in a highly reliable and maintenance-free manner.
Release and Configuration Management
No designer overhead
IC Manage’s powerful relational database technology treats releases as first class objects rather than requiring the explicit data
tagging needed with traditional systems. Release states are implicit for all versions in the change-based architecture and are fully
incremental. Designers can easily subscribe to releases for components or sets of components without complex scripting. Additionally,
designers can roll back both the cells and the entire library or sets of libraries to any point in the past without having had to
explicitly create tags.
Revision Control
Unified system for HW and SW
IC Manage GDP manages revisions of all data types, including binary data, RTL, software, and EDA databases. Traditionally,
software developers have been reluctant to use tools developed for hardware design due to a lack of features. This results in
incompatibilities which limit communication and re-use between cross-functional development teams. IC Manage’s hardware design
solution is built on Perforce, a leading industry standard SCM. This means hardware and software developers can follow a unified
development model for all data types.
Cadence Design Framework II Integration
Manages Cadence data and hand-offs
IC Manage GDP is tightly integrated with the Cadence DFII environment, supporting both Open Access (OA) and Component Data Bank
(CDB) database formats. IC Manage GDP provides fully hierarchical lib, cell, view and property management with complete SKILL
integration and auto-check-in/check-out support. IC Manage provides complete version and icon based state notification for maximum
designer productivity.
