Author: WaelBadawy
Advertise, no matter if you are big or small
What is your attitude as a small town businessman when it comes to advertising or taking help of an advertising design agency to provide creative design solutions? I bet, more often than not it is on the lines of “What ever is left over, we’ll use for advertising”. Well, you are not alone. Most of the small town businessmen treat advertising as such, as they feel that they know most of their customers who will come back, advertising or not.
Fair enough, but what if you have a competitor within the town or even without in the form of E-commerce ensuring doorstep delivery and definitely much larger choice. You getting the point?
Competition or not, you always need to remind your customers that you are there and what value you bring to them. This way you not only ensure that loyal customers remain so, but you net new customers. Remember marketing and advertising is an investment, not an expense. Without enough money put aside for advertising your sales can go down and you suddenly have less and less for promotion. You advertise most when you need business. You advertise more when you don’t.
A small-budget advertiser doesn’t have the ”deep pockets” to develop big advertising campaigns or go for top shot advertising design agency. In this case you need to break the rules to be noticed. Avis did it by admitting they were “Number 2” in the car rental business and that campaign took them from 6th place to second place.
Now you must be wondering is there any sure shot way of advertising which not only is cost effective but has maximum impact. To be sure, there isnít any readymade formula for bullís eye hitting creative design solutions but this article proffers some tips to get this sort of marketing in place. Before we get to the tips let’s look at the basic strategies of successful advertising.
* In order to be successful, your advertising must provide a consumer benefit or solve a problem.
* That benefit or solution must be wanted by the consumer.
* The product or service you are offering must be tied directly to that benefit or solution.
* The benefit or solution must be distinctly communicated through medial advertising. In other words, be clear, forget the advertising glitz and make sure the message isn’t lost in the ad.
Average cost of advertising is usually 1 to 5% of gross sales, which can vary according to location, local advertising rates, and industry. Budget conscious advertisers must achieve top results for their advertising dollar. Expand your dollars by adopting some creative techniques.
<b>Some Tips</b>
* Place your ads in off hours or in unusual locations on discounted rates. This will help you in containing the cost. Many times you can still reach your target market with these spots.
* Instead of a one-time big splash ad, be consistent with frequent small ads that work to keep reminding your customers of your presence.
* Consider advertising in regional issues of national magazines. The costs are lower and you can reach your target market. TV Guide is also a good choice. It stays around for at least a week.
* Sponsor a community event if you can like a fun-run, golf tournament, or other event that will be well publicized in the community. Your name may not be prominently displayed but sometimes the positive exposure in the community will bring in new customers.
* Exploit the media you choose to the fullest. If your message is verbal, you don’t need TV. Use radio, billboards and newspapers to the fullest.
* Consider direct mail. A letter and brochure before customer contact can increase business.
*Hire an advertising design agency which might not be top of the heap, but can get creative and specializes in interactive campaigns to provide you with creative design solutions.
I hope these tips will help your business grow. Not all may be relevant to your particular situation. Hopefully, they will illustrate the importance to plan and control your advertising budget.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Advertise to millions -#1- Write articles
Introduction:
This is a series of articles about marketing and advertising. There are different ways you can reach an audience of millions of individuals all around the world. I show you on this series how to implement profitable strategies in your marketing career.
It has been said that “what matters is not what you sell but how you promote it.” So, the secret to success lays within your marketing techniques. That’s why it is very important for business owners to develop skills which allow them to increase the sales of their products.
One of the most important skills you must have is the ability to reach a lot of people quickly. To do this you need to realize how powerful media is an how it can drastically increase your revenues.
” Write Articles;
Writing articles is one of the easiest and most effective methods used to advertise on the Internet today. This technique works as follows… You need to write a short one page or one and a half page article and submit it to article banks. Then web masters and online publishers will copy it and paste it on their web sites, newsletters, e-zines, etc.
At the bottom of each article you will attach a small biography about yourself which is called the author’s resource box. That will be your ad containing your contact info, which could be your name, phone number, e-mail address or web site URL.
Why and how does it work? It works because web masters, affiliates, online marketers and publishers need valuable content to attract visitors to their web sites. Then they go to article banks and borrow free content (the articles) from people like you who provide said content for free.
That way they profit from your efforts and you profit from theirs because when their visitors go to their web sites and read your article many of them will contact you when they read your ad at the bottom. So publishers get free content while you get free publicity. The middle guys are the article banks which also benefit from this activity. It is a win-win situation for everyone.
Now, I will explain how this technique can increase your exposure exponentially. Some of the web sites bellow have as many as 15,000 publishers per site. So let’s say that you submit to 10 sites and on average 500 publishers per site are interested in your article within approximately one month.
If that’s the case (which is probable), then your article will be published on about 5,000 different web sites (500 publishers ◊ 10 article banks = 5,000 web pages). Do you understand what it means to have thousands of pages linking to you?
Let’s say that those 5,000 web sites receive on average 1000 visitors per month each. That would be 5,000,000 potential prospects that can now come across your products or services each and every month. To be realistic though, not all of the visitors will find your articles. Not all of the publishers will publish what you write. And this process doesn’t happen overnight. It takes some time.
On the other hand, this is one of the best methods if not the best one you can use to increase your exposure on the Internet. It is free, easy and doesn’t consume too much time. Ask any Online Marketing Guru and you will find out that they will have a similar opinion.
If you write a few articles and submit them to 10 of the best e-zines, you could be receiving thousands of new visitors per month within a few months. Keep in mind that the more you write and submit the more visitors you will receive. If you write just one article and submit it to one web site only, it won’t bring you many clients.
This is a numbers game. It is a Mathematical thing. I really like this technique because it makes my publicity grow exponentially. You make an effort once and it multiplies for many years into the future. You place your articles on a few web sites and they stay there forever.
New publishers find them every month. So it grows exponentially. It reproduces itself like a virus. This is what it is called viral marketing and it really works. You might need to have some patience because it may take some time before you start reaping the rewards from this activity, but it is really worth it! If you do this your articles will work for you as your sale agents announcing your products and services to the world.
For example, I wrote once three articles and submitted them to www.goarticles.com. Three days later I checked them out on that web site to see how they were doing. I was amazed to discover that one of the articles had been downloaded by 100 people already. How come? I had submitted it there only three days before.
That’s for you to have an idea how many people out there are desperately seeking fresh new content for their web sites. The other two had been downloaded about 40 to 50 times. Two weeks later my best performing article had been downloaded 197 times. Could you believe it? Try it an see the results for yourself.
This will definitely increase your exposure because you don’t only receive new visitors from the publishers’ web sites but also your search engine rankings increase, which makes you receive more potential clients from search engines too.
If you don’t like to write then you can hire a ghost writer and have him/her write the articles for you. Go to www.getafreelancer.com and post a project on that web site. Freelancers will bid on your project and you will be able to choose the one that will work for you. One page articles may cost you from $10 to $20 each and can bring you many benefits as stated above.
You can submit your articles to thousands of free article banks, but submitting them to about 15 or 20 will be OK. I think you should not skip the most popular ones, those with several thousands publishers like www.articlecity.com, www.goarticles.com, www.ezinearticles.com. Just make sure you read the authors’ bylines first.
If you don’t want to do this manually you can join www.thephantomwriters.com. They claim to have a list of more than 12,000 publishers to which they submit your articles to periodically. The drawback of this technique is that they charge a fee, while the web sites mentioned above are free to join.
As you can see, this technique can increase your exposure and help you get more clients. You can read about other effective marketing techniques from my other articles on this series.
An Efficient Architecture for a Lifted 2D Biorthogonal DWT
This paper presents a new algorithm for a 2D non-separable lifted bi-orthogonal wavelet transform. The algorithm is derived by factoring complementary pairs of wavelet transform 2D filters. The results are efficient architectures for real time signal processing, which do not require transpose memory for the 2D processing of data. The proposed architecture exploits in place implementation, inherit from the algorithm, and can take advantage of both vertical and horizontal parallelism in the direct implementation. The processing in our architecture is scheduled by carefully pipelining the lifted steps, which allows for up to four times faster processing than the direct implementation. The proposed architecture operates at high speed, consumes low power and has reduced computational complexity as compared to previously published filter and lifted based bi-orthogonal wavelet architectures.
Mehboob Alam , Wael Badawy, Vassil Dimitrov and Graham Jullien, “An Efficient Architecture for a Lifted 2D Biorthogonal DWT,” The Journal of VLSI Signal Processing , Volume 40, Issue 3, July 2005, pp. 335 – 342
AdsenseEmpire for you
Dear Friend,
Please pardon us if this letter doesnít sound all slick and hyped-upóweíre not professional marketers, like many of the so-called gurus you see on late-night TV, or on the internet. In fact, youíve probably never heard of us. Thatís because weíre just a couple of real guys, like you. Weíve played around on the internet, noodling with sites, for years.
Thereís just one out-of-the-ordinary thing about us: we’re real guys whoíve stumbled onto an amazingly simple system for making BIG money online. Our system is so simple, in fact, that ANYONE can do it and it only takes a few hours a week! This isnít rocket scienceóitís something even high-school drop-outs can do!
Our system is safe, it’s simple, and it’s remarkably powerful. And yes, YOU can easily learn it.Itís not complicated! Itís called Google Adsense. If you learn to leverage the power of Google Adsense You could be down at your bank cashing a check for Ä3,000 Ä5,000, Ä10,000 — or even more — in 28 DAYS or LESS! Picture yourself standing at the tellerís window, handing her the check, and getting all those Ä100 bills counted out right into your hand. Feels good, doesnít it?
Hey, we know itís hard to believe you could make this kind of money working only a few hours a week. But itís all true! Donít take our word for it, listen to Rick, a 27-year-old guy who got laid off from his tech job and put Google Adsense system to the test and used it to create his own wealth and freedom.
Exciting isnít it?
What could YOU do with Ä1,000, Ä2,000, Ä3,000 or MORE in extra money coming in like clockwork each and every month from using our system? Would youÖ
* Pay off that credit card balance thatís been hanging over your head?
* Buy that new sports car youíve been wanting? You know the one!
* Upgrade the kitchen in your house, or buy a new whole new home?
* Finally take a real vacationónot just to a nearby city, but to the Caribbean?
* Get rid of your student loans?
* Help your mom, dad, siblings, or friends out financially?
* Donate to your favorite charity?
* Maybe even quit that job you hate and never have to sit in a cubicle again?!
Totally Amazing But True:
Google Will Send You Checks In The Mail Just For Using Their Adsense Program! You Can Create Killer Content That Draws Thousands Of Hits A Day To Your Site Using Simple Tools! Users Click On The Ads, You Get Checks. Itís That Easy!
By now you might be wondering, Yeah, sure, it sounds good but if this system of yours is such a money-maker, why are you taking time out from it to teach this course? Why arenít you out there using your system to keep on making money?
Thatís a perfectly valid question!
For me, itís that I’ve always wanted to teach. The deep-down satisfaction I gets from mentoring others touches my heart in a truly special way. And, quite honestly, I’ve made enough money that I can easily afford to indulge this dream of teaching now. I don’t like people to know this, but I keep a little shoebox on internet marketing on my desk with letters from my successful students, like Jack, and every week I reads them because they keep him goingÖand they make me smile.
And now, itís time for you to stop dreaming and start forging your own reality of SUCCESS TODAY by using our brand new program:
Your Guide to Google Adsense Profits:
How You can Make a Fortune Online with Google Adsense!
This powerful training course contains everything you need to know and I do mean EVERYTHING so you can start making dramatic profits from Google Adsense FAST!
You’ll learn:
* How YOU can get Google to stream ads onto your website for free.
* How Google Adsense ads are specially selected to match your siteís topic.
* How YOU earn money every time a visitor to your site clicks on one of the ads.
* The difference between putting ads where theyíll be seen on your site and where theyíll be overlookedówould you believe it can make the difference in a click-through rate of 2.3% versus 40%???
* How YOU can get killer content for your site that you donít have to write yourself!
* How YOU can use a few simple tools to direct massive amounts of traffic to your site.
* How YOU can automate your content, yet avoid being blacklisted by the major search engines for doing so.
* The secrets of keyword-rich contentówhat it means, what it does, how to get it!
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* Plus, much, much more!
Finally–your big chance to learn from real people just like you who have been using these systems to make a fortune with Google Adsense!
Downsizing and layoffs have left thousands of tech-savvy people just like you without incomes or jobs. Donít let it happen to you! Learn how a few simple, easy steps can help you
* Build your nest egg
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* Become the captain of your own financial life!
Try and enjoy a new life
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
A Right Media Mix Can Make the Difference
Branding is no longer simply about visual appeal (or the cherry in the apple pie example, as given in my earlier article). Unfortunately, many graphic design firms who position themselves as advertising agencies believe that branding your corporate identity is all about developing great looking visual solutions.
However, there is much more to branding than just looking good. Particularly in this web 2.0 eras, where a powerful web presence has become a vital ingredient of your branding strategy, developing the right media mix holds the key to building powerful brand equity.
<b>In other words, a right media mix would mean: </b>
ï Creative design solutions (the design, color, and content of your ads, marketing collateral and website enhance your brand equity, attract customers, and generate sales)
ï Web development (every product/service worth its name has a web presence these days, some have truly interactive, animated sites encouraging customer involvement),
ï Viral marketing (vitally important in todayís age of social networking, tagging, podcasting, blogs, forums, wikis and what have you)
ï Television commercial production, print media advertising (traditional media cannot be overlooked)
ï Strategic films (have become necessary elements of roadshows, exibhitions and other promotional campaigns)
ï Corporate video production (a very important tool for branding your corporate identity)
ï Direct marketing (marketing collaterals need to be just as effective and resonant with the overall branding scheme as the communicate directly with the customer)
ï Outdoor advertising (hoardings, roadshows, participations in business fairs, exhibitions, etc)
There are some interactive advertising agencies that have recognized the need of the hour – developing creative design solutions that employ user-centric investigation and involve critical and systematic thinking. User-centric means understanding of needs and priorities of end user; the clients’ customers, their channel partners, users, and brand communities.
So if you want to register your brand as one that is synonymous with customer loyalty, you must develop a complete package, keeping the customer as the prime objective and organizing product stories around the way they prefer to learn about, compare, select and confirm purchases, connecting brands and their experiences.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Don't start it, buy it!
Why should you buy a business versus starting
your own? Here are ten solid reasons:
1) The success rate for businesses purchased is much higher than the success rate for a new business startup. Just ask your accountant.
2) An established customer base means immediate cash flow! Enough said.
3) It is much easier to find capital to buy an existing business than to start a new one. Why? See reason #2 above. Bankers are not dumb. They know the statistics. Bankers are much more willing to lend money when there is an identified source of repayment already in place.
4) Many sellers are willing to carry-back financing at very reasonable terms. Why? For income tax reasons. They would prefer to defer any gain over a longer period versus taking a gain all at once. And if a seller is willing to carry back any part of the purchase price, it tells you the seller believes that the business will continue to succeed under your management.
5) Projections for a startup are nothing more than an educated guess. Projections for existing businesses for sale are based on historical results. Which is more reliable?
6) Startups always, I repeat, ALWAYS cost more to start than expected. For the money you will end up spending to start that new business (which may or not succeed) you could have probably purchased an existing business with immediate cash flow.
7) You may actually need to come up with less cash for your down payment plus working capital when you buy an existing business than you would need if you started your own business. Why? With owner carry financing and a performing track record, your existing business purchase is very bankable. A new startup is not very bankable. The cash required to get the new business to a cash flow positive is unknown. And it eats cash.
8) An established web site presence. Although each business will vary, most businesses rely to some extent on a business web site. The longer a web site has been established, and the more traffic that web site receives, the more value search engines place on that site. This is important as your web site ranking determines your placement in search engine results. In other words, building a new web site is not enough. Customers still need to find it. A quality, established web site can be a real asset, something that a new startup will not have.
9) Many businesses listed for sale are actually very fairly priced. One can often find a business for sale that will sell for three to four times cash flow. Think about it. Four times cash flow equates to a 25% annual cash return on investment. 25% will usually cover all debt service and still leave a decent return for the investor.
10) Less brain damage. Just ask anyone who has been ‘wrung through the wringer’ by starting their own business. Always wondering if customers would really come.
Think about it. It really is a pretty easy decision.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Computer Consultant Startup: Identify Your Business Skills
Computer consultants need to have the right mix of business and technical skills to succeed with small businesses. Do you have the right skill-set to be a successful small business computer consultant?
Since you’re taking the time to read this article right now, it’s a good sign that you have what it takes to become a computer consultant. You’re in the small minority of people who have recognized that this is a business and needs to be run like one.
A Good Computer Consultant Has More Than Just Technical Skills
It’s not about playing with the latest routers or wi-fi device or VPNs or firewalls. Sure, you have to have a certain amount of skills to make a successful computer consultant because people are buying your expertise. At the end of the day, though, it’s a business.
In order for the business to be successful, you have to know a few things about getting revenue in and keeping your expenses down. You also need to forecast and be able to bill, negotiate, and network properly.
There are a lot of stubborn techies out there who think that studying the Windows Server Resource Kit is going to tell them what they need to know about running a business. Not true. It’s going to teach you about registry keys and directories and things like that.
Even a Computer Consultant Needs a Good Resume
If you’re currently self-employed, you may not have an up- to-date resume, but for most people looking to transition into the business to become a computer consultant you probably do have a resume. Take out a copy of your resume and a yellow highlighter marker and go through and highlight every sentence or phrase in your resume that describes a project or a job or a skill that you think would be relevant or marketable to the owner of a small company.
Categorize the Items on Your Resume
Go through it and look for all the phrases and the jobs and the projects that you’ve worked on for the past couple of years and think about what’s going to catch the eye of a typical small business owner or manager. Once you’ve done that, go back through each highlighted item and mark whether it was IT related, whether it had to do with understanding how to run a business or whether it had to do with being able to communicate effectively.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Analog IP Reuse in Nano Technologies, design and reuse
Analog IP Reuse in Nano Technologies
Hazem Said, Ain Shams University Cairo Egypt.
Mohamed Dessouky, Mentor Graphics Cairo Egypt.
Mohamed Tawfik, Mentor Graphics Cairo Egypt.
Quang Nguyen, ON Semiconductor Toulouse, France
Wael Badawy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
Hazem Abbas, Mentor Graphics, Cairo, Egypt
Hussein Shaheen, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
Abstract :
Presented in this paper is a tool that automatically migrates analog designs from one process to another while keeping circuit and layout topologies. A netlist migration engine recalculates the new device dimensions in the target technology followed by a layout migration engine that compacts the design according to the new process design rules. The overall framework preserves design intelligence embedded in the original IP such as symmetry, hierarchy, placement and routing. The circuit migration engine, being very fast, can retarget large analog blocks in only a few minutes while giving same or better performance of the original design. The migration of an integrated RC oscillator from 0.6u technology to 0.25u technology is presented to validate the overall methodology. This circuit has been fabricated and measured.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years there has been an interest toward cheap, low power portable electronics, which is driving the semiconductor industry to move toward more and more integration of functional blocks over a single IC in what is known as SoC design. The complexity of SoC designs nowadays is ever increasing and has resulted in more integration of mixed-signal blocks over a single IC. Driven also by the need to be more powerful, semiconductor manufacturers continue to innovate technologies towards smaller and smaller transistor feature sizes (for example from 0.25um to 0.18um to 0.13um). As a result, there is an increasing need in re-designing functioning mixed signal designs for new technology processes. Digital IP reuse is a well- established world thanks to the advance in the well-defined and automated digital flow available nowadays through different CAD companies. The analog domain on the other hand is still suffering from the lack of automation, which resulted in the analog IP portion being manually redesigned each time an SoC is migrated from a technology to another. This paper presents a complete framework, together with the associated tools, that retargets hard analog IP from one technology to another. The flow consists mainly of a circuit-sizing engine and a layout compaction engine. The benefit of this methodology is that it represents a complete solution to migrate hard IP between different processes in a fully automated way The rest of the paper is organized as follows: section 2 presents an overview of the state of the art for analog circuit migration techniques, section 3 presents the complete methodology for hard IP migration, section 4 presents the suggested circuit-sizing approach and a comparison versus other techniques, section 5 presents the suggested layout retargeting approach, section 6 presents examples and results. Finally section 7 presents a summary and draws conclusions of the work presented.
ANALOG DESIGN PROCESS MIGRATION
In order to migrate an analog hard-core IP from one technology to another all device dimensions in the target technology must be recalculated such as to get same circuit performance between source and target technologies. Several approaches have been investigated to resize the analog core of an SoC. One approach consists of developing specific block synthesis tools [1] [2]. These synthesis tools are developed specifically to cover a certain type of circuits like Opamps, PLLs, DACs or others. It should be noted that each type of these blocks could have several architectures. Each type of architecture has a different set of design equations and heuristics that describe the circuit. Hence, to develop such block synthesis tools, all design equations and heuristics be extracted and embedded within the tool. Block generator development takes a considerable effort and time. It must be justified by an extensive use of the generator. Design reuse based on an original working design has been investigated both through qualitative reasoning [3] and analog synthesis [4][5]. Another approach optimizes the equivalent small-signal model with respect to the original circuit [6]. The optimization engine visits candidate circuit designs and adjusts their parameters in an attempt to satisfy their user’s specified performance goals. A first group of optimization techniques use analytical models that describe the basic performance of the circuit using symbolic equations [7]. A second group of optimization techniques uses the full spice accuracy [8]. Using a full analog simulator capability has the advantage of accurate results but suffers from being very slow. On the other hand, using analytical equations has the impact of less accurate designs with faster results. The optimization techniques in general are closer to a circuit re-design than design reuse. All design knowledge and tradeoffs, implicitly coded by the first designer in the initial design, is completely lost. In addition, optimization-based techniques are only adapted to cell sizing due to their extensive use of computer resources. They are therefore less suitable for migrating a complete mixed-signal function (e.g. analog-to-digital converter, PLL, …).
COMPLETE MIGRATION FLOW
The complete migration flow is shown in Figure 1. The design that needs to be migrated should consist of a front-end view, in the form of a schematic/netlist (source circuit), and a back-end view, in the form of a layout (source layout) in a given process (source technology). The input to the resizing engine is the source netlist together with some technology information related to the source and target processes. The output of the resizing engine is a spice netlist with the new device dimensions that achieve the required circuit performance. Layout retargeting starts with a process layer mapping file in addition to the source layout. During a layer step, all layers in the source design are mapped to their corresponding layer in the target process. Addition or removal of layers is always possible between source and target processes. The following step involves the compaction of the layout while taking all design rules of the target process into consideration. New device sizes are considered as additional layout constraints. The output of the layout engine is a retargeted layout free of any design rule errors and updated with all device dimensions calculated from the circuit sizing engine.
Figure 1. Migration Flow
CIRCUIT SIZING BASED ON DESIGN EXTRACTION
During circuit retargeting, the main focus is to keep the same circuit performance of a given circuit in a given fabrication process while trying to migrate it to a different fabrication target process. This is done hierarchically for the whole macro-function. Each block is handled separately in a specific order. Naturally, if the performance of each block is kept the same during design migration, the performance of the whole macro-function will also be the same.
The core of the methodology is based upon the definition of a relative transistor bias point as follows:
Itgt = KIsrc (1)
VGST = VGS – Vth (2)
VDST = VDS – VDSsat (3)
where K is a user-specified constant. Transistor electrical parameters and hence performance depends on the relative bias voltages rather than absolute voltages and currents.
The structure of the netlist migration engine is shown in Figure 2. The input to the engine consists of:
- Information about the source and target processes.
- A hierarchical netlist file in spice format.
- User defined constraints: K, fixing of some node voltages, minimum and maximum device dimensions.
Figure 2. Structure of the netlist migration engine
As shown in Figure 2, the retargeting process itself is divided into two main actions: Design extraction and Device resizing. The design extraction engine is responsible of extracting all the knowledge embedded in the original design such as small signal parameters, large signal parameters, currents, node voltages, device dimensions, parasitics, and symmetry information. The design extraction engine is integrated with an interactive analog simulator that reads the structure of the netlist and extracts design hierarchy. A block recognition engine is embedded with the Design Extraction Engine and is capable of extracting different analog basic bulding blocks such as:
Current Mirror, Level Shifter, Voltage Reference, Current mirror Load, Differential Pair, Flip Flop, Current mirror block, Level Shifter Block, Current Source and Switch [9].
The device-resizing engine follows afterwards and is responsible of resizing the different devices in the circuit. The algorithm which is used to resize the transistors in the circuit is based on the assumption that preserving the parameters of each individual component (transistor, resistor, and capacitor) in each subcircuit would preserve the overall performance of each subcircuit, this would mean we would reach same performance of the overall circuit. In its first iteration, the engine scales all node voltages by the ratio of the old supply to the new supply voltage. The dimensions of the transistors are also scaled by the ratio of the old feature size to the new feature size.
In subsequent iterations the relative biasing points are kept the same between source and target technologies while the engine preserves the same small signals parameters of each device between source and target technologies by changing device dimensions in the target technology without exceeding the parasitics associated with each device.
The advantage of this method is that it doesn’t depend on any performance evaluation prior to reusing the circuit and hence there is no need to run multiple simulations to fit the device sizes to a certain performance criteria and hence the reuse cycle is very fast.
LAYOUT MIGRATION THROUGH PATH-FIXING EDGE BASED COMPACTION
As shown in Figure 1, layout migration is achieved using a compaction approach. Most existing compaction techniques use one-dimensional compaction, as in virtual grid [10][11], shear lines [12][13] and constraint graph [14] approaches. Compactors based on constraint graph approach generate better quality layouts [14]. Also, nearly all existing techniques use symbolic layouts, where layout elements represent devices or wires (symbols).
Solving a constraint graph to generate the compacted layout is done using the well-known longest path algorithm [14] [15]. However, some enhancements are still needed to minimize wire length [16].
In this engine, rather than using a symbolic approach, the constraint graph handles edges of layout polygons directly. A path-fixing technique based on graph-theory is used for minimization of polygon areas. This graph-based technique produces a compacted layout without the need of time consuming simplex matrix operations.
Figure 3 shows a sample layout together with the corresponding constraint graph. The constraint graph is a directed graph in which nodes represent edges of layout polygons, while arcs represent a distance constraint between two edges represented by the two end nodes of the arc. For example, an arc from node x1 to node x9 with a length of 10 represents the following distance constraint: x9 – x1 ? 10. A distance can either be a width constraint or a separation constraint. A width constraint determines the minimum width of a certain polygon. It exists between two edges of the same polygon inside the polygon, e.g. [x1, x9] and [x3, x4]. A separation constraint is a constraint between two edges of the same polygon, but outside the polygon, or the edges of two different polygons that determine the minimum separation between these two edges. For example, arcs between [x4, x5] and [x8, x9] are separation constraints. Two artificial edges are added at both extremities to bound edge movement as shown in figure 3(b).
Figure 3. (a) sample layout and (b) the corresponding constraint graph
A path is a series connection of arcs in the same direction with no node touched more than once. As can be seen from Figure 3(b), two paths exist between node x1 and node x9: [x1, x9] with a length of 10 and [x1, x3, x4, x5, x6, x7, x8, x9] with a length of (5+10+5+10+5+10+5)= 50. A compaction path is defined as the longest path between two edges xi, xj, which have a minimum width constraint between them. For example nodes x1, x9 have minimum width constraint between them represented by the arc [x1, x9]. The compaction path between x1, x9 is therefore [x1, x3, x4, x5, x6, x7, x8, x9].
The algorithm aims to find the location of each edge in the layout to minimize the total areas of layout polygons while respecting design rules. It associates location bounds to each edge, in addition to a fixed flag that indicates that this edge can not move anymore.
The algorithm produces a compacted layout with no need to wire length minimization or post processing [16]. It depends mainly on graph-based operations that are more efficient than linear programming matrix operations usually used in wire length minimization. Dealing with edges other than symbols enables the compaction engine to handle any complex device and any complex routing.
Initial layout contains valuable knowledge, and in most cases already verified by fabrication. The migration by compaction keeps the same knowledge (i.e. floor-planning, placement, routing) in the target layout. Layer mapping used in the migration engine allows complex devices to be migrated even to completely different layers.
EXAMPLE AND RESULTS
This section shows an industrial test case that has been identified to validate and test the migration tool. This is an integrated RC Oscillator which has been migrated from a 0.6u to a 0.25u process of two different foundries to increase porting challenges. The overall CPU run time for both resizing and layout migration of the design took less than one hour on an Ultra Sparc machine where 80% of the time is consumed by the layout migration engine.
Integrated RC Oscillator.
Figure 4. Oscillator Frequency vs supply
Figure 5. Oscillator Frequency vs temperature
This is an integrated astable oscillator that produces a 1 MHz output frequency. It has an output frequency with very high stability versus temperature sweep from –55 to 125°C. The output frequency is very stable as well with supply variations from 2.5 to 5.5V. The oscillator contains several blocks such as a bandgap reference, some biasing cells, a digital decoder used for trimming, an amplifier and a couple of comparators. The number of devices inside this circuit is around 500. The migration of the design from 0.6u to 0.25u took 1 week including corner simulation and post layout verification. Figure 4 and Figure 5 show simulation results of the source and migrated oscillator versus temperature and supply voltage sweep respectively. The maximum variation in frequency between the source and target designs is less than 1% when sweeping over the temperature and less than 4% for supply change. This is an acceptable variation especially that the oscillator has a trimming circuitry that enables fine adjustments over the frequency of the oscillator. Figure 6 shows the source layout with an area of around 93600u2 while Figure 7 shows the retargeted layout with an area of around 86400u2 saving around 8% which is less than the previous examples due to the large area occupied by passive devices.
Figure 6. Oscillator layout in 0.6u technology
Figure 7. Oscillator layout in 0.25u technology
CONCLUSION
This paper described an innovative method for the reuse of analog circuits; this method includes both a circuit sizing engine for circuit migration and a layout-retargeting engine. The circuit-sizing engine is based on design extraction and device performance mapping. The layout engine is based on a modified edge-based compaction algorithm. Both netlist and layout engines are efficient with small cells as well as macro-functions and have proven to be very fast. The validation of the tool has been demonstrated by retargeting and fabricating a real design through an industrial partnership.
REFERENCES
[1] R.R. Neff, P.R Gray, and A. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, “ A Module Generator for High-Speed CMOS Current Output Digital/Analog Converters”, in IEEE J. of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 31, pp. 448-451, Mar. 1996.F. Medeiro, B. Pérez-Verdú, A. Rodríguez-Vázquez, and J. L. Huertas, “A Vertically Integrated Tool for Automated Design of ?? Modulators”, in IEEE J. of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 30, pp. 762-772, Jul. 1995.
[2] K. Francken, and G. Gielen, “Methodology for Analog Technology Porting Including Performance Tuning”, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. On Circuits and Systems, Vol. 1, pp. 415-418, May 1999.
[3] R. Phelps, M. Krasnicki, R. Rutenbar, L. R. Carley, and J. Hel-lums, “A case study of synthesis for industrial-scale analog IP: Re-design of the equalizer/filter frontend for an ADSL CODEC,” in Proc. ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conf., pp. 1–6, 2000.
[4] E. Hennig, R. Sommer and L. Charlack, “An Automated Approach for Sizing Complex Analog Circuits in a Simulation-Based Flow”, in Proc. ACM/IEEE Design Automation and Test in Europe, Designer Forum, pp. 230-234, Mar. 2002.
[5] S. Funaba, A. Kitagawa, T. Tsukada, and G. Yokomizo, “A Fast and Accurate Method of Redesigning Analog Subcircuits for Technology Scaling”, Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Vol. 25, 2000, P. 299-307
[6] C.Toumazou and C.Makris, “Analog IC design automation: Part I—Automated circuit generation: New concepts and methods, ” IEEE Trans. Computer-Aided Design, vol.14, pp. 218–238, Feb.1995.
[7] Xu Jingnan; Serras, J.; Oliveira, M.; Belo, R.; Bugalho, M.; Vital, J.; Horta, N.; Franca J. “IC design automation from circuit level optimization to retargetable layout,” ICECS 2001. The 8th IEEE International Conference on Circuits and Systems, Volume: 1, Sept. 2001 pp. 95 – 98 vol.1.
[8] H. Graeb, S. Zizala, J. Eckmueller, and K. Antreich, “The Sizing Rules Method for Analog Integrated Circuit Design”, in Proc. Int. Conf. on Computer-Aided Design, pp. 343 – 349, 2001.
[9] Weste, N. “Virtual Grid Symbolic Layout”, in Proc. the 18th Design Automation Conference, June 1981, pp. 225-233.
[10] Bayer, D-G.; and Weste, N. “Virtual Grid Compaction Using the Most Recent Layers Algorithm”, in Proc. ICCAD, 1983, pp. 92-93.
[11] A.E. Dunlop, “SLIM – The Translation of Symbolic Layouts into Mask Data”, in Proc. of the 17th Design Automation Conference, IEEE (1980), 595 – 602
[12] A.E. Dunlop, “SLIP: Symbolic Layout of Integrated Circuits with Compaction”, Computer Aided Design, November 1978.
[13] Y. E. Cho, “A subjective review of compaction”, in Proc. 22nd Design Automation Conf., June 1985, pp. 396–404.
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Sherif Hammouda, Hazem Said, Mohamed Dessouky, Mohamed Tawfik, Quang Nguyen, Wael Badawy, Hazem Abbas, Hussein Shaheen, “Analog IP Reuse in Nano Technologies, design and reuse,” April 6, 2006.
Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make and How to Avoid Them
Unfortunately very few start up businesses make it beyond their 3rd year. Failure is usually down to a number of clearly identifiable mistakes, which if small business owners are aware of, can increase their chances of survival.
Here are the top 10 common mistakes which small businesses tend to make.
<b>Lack of Market Research</b>
When a budding entrepreneur comes up with an idea for a new business he assumes that because he would buy such a product or service then everyone else will. This may be the case for day-to-day necessities but for other items this is usually not so.
It’s important that when you start up you carefully research the market to check that:
– There is demand at a level which would lead to a sustainable business
– People are prepared to pay the price required for you to make a decent profit
Undertaking market research may appear time consuming but the effort will pay off.
<b>Poor Record Keeping</b>
Some business people are not born administrators; they feel more comfortable getting out there and ëdoing the business’. Paperwork is too easy to ignore but can never be put off indefinitely.
Sales, purchases and other expenditure must be carefully documented, so you know whether you are making a profit or not. Invoices must be issued on time and chased up promptly if there is a delay in payment. It’s all very well having the sales but poor record keeping can hold you back.
Having your paperwork in order will also save you time when it comes to your accountant doing your year-end books!
<b>Insufficient Capital</b>
When starting off it’s easy to decide what capital is required for fixtures and fittings, machinery and stock. What many new business owners forget about is the cash needed to fund day-to-day requirements, i.e. cash to pay expenses before your customers pay you. This is known as your working capital requirement.
Small businesses can fail because they have insufficient cash to start off to meet these immediate expenses. If you wish to survive make sure you set aside enough cash to meet all your needs for the first few months.
<b>Ineffective Marketing Or None At All</b>
You cannot afford to treat the cost of marketing as an unnecessary expense. A business with no marketing is like waving in the dark ñ you know you are doing it but no one else does!
There are many ways to promote your business on a small budget; it’s just a case of being inventive and creative. What ever you do, don’t assume that people will quickly know you are in business ñ they won’t, unless you tell them.
<b>Ingoring Changes In The Market Place</b>
As a small business owner it’s very easy to get immersed in your business and not see what is happening around you in the market place. Always keep your eyes and ears open to what the competition is doing and what your customers want. Don’t get left behind.
<b>Owner’s Attitude</b>
Attitude is everything in business. Don’t forget that the real boss in your business is the customer. Running a business may make you feel important but don’t let this develop into an ëI am better than you’ attitude. Do this and you will quickly chase your customers away.
<b>Spending On The Wrong Things</b>
Being in business can be exciting, especially as the cash starts to roll in! However, don’t be tempted to spend it on a new car, a house or just a good time. If you are to own a successful business then you have to keep some cash back to fund future growth. A business cannot grow without cash, so commit to spending business money on the business.
<b>Dependent On A Small Number Of Customers</b>
Don’t fall into the trap of setting up a business just because one person says they will buy from you every week or month. Setting up and running a business, which is dependent on one customer, is not a recipe for success. What happens if, one month after you have spent all your cash to set up your business, that customer says he has changed his mind and has decided to buy elsewhere? Unless you can find other customers very quickly you are faced with closure.
Before embarking on a new venture make sure you have a sufficient number of customers such that if a few go elsewhere you can still continue trading.
<b>Growing Too Quickly</b>
Surprisingly, growing too quickly can be a problem. You have to be disciplined enough to only take on work you can handle. If you are tempted to accept too much you could end up disappointing not only the new client but also your existing ones.
Also, don’t under-estimate the impact rapid growth can have your administrative burden. As I mentioned earlier, getting behind on the paperwork can have an equally damaging effect on your business.
<b>Trying To Do Everything</b>
Finally, the problem most small business owners have is the fact that everything falls on their plate. Inevitably this is how it’s likely to be in the beginning, when the limited budget means that staff are a luxury, but as the business grows be aware that you cannot continue to do all tasks. There will come a point when you become inefficient and not have enough time to complete everything in sufficient detail. Taking on an extra pair of hands will increase your costs but you will be surprised at how much time will be saved, allowing you to do what you do best ñ getting the business in.
Take a look at each of the mistakes and make sure that you don’t fall into these traps.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar