Nanocomputing: CAD tools for emerging technologies

This research field has grown around the idea of creating flexible tools able to design, simulate and study architectures based on emerging nanotechnologies providing the same top-down design flow used for CMOS designs.

ToPoliNano is a cross-platform EDA software. Starting from a HDL description, automatic place and route algorithms can generate a circuit based on the selected technology. The simulation verifies the correct behavior of the generated layout. It embeds both a switch level and physical simulation engine based on the single domain approximation.
MagCAD is intended as a graphical editor for the framework. Users can design custom circuit through a user-friendly GUI. The designed circuits can be exported as components for later use. Furthermore, the tool can automatically export a standard HDL description of the circuits that can be simulated with a standard logic simulator, like ModelSIM.

DeXima is a tool devoted to the design and performance estimation for Logic-In-Memory architectures. Circuits can be designed manually or through Octantis which generates architectures automatically starting from a standard C code.

TAMTAMS is a tool able to compare the performance of devices and circuits based on different transistor technologies.

These tools are now being integrated in a single solution, to create an innovative software able to design, simulate and estimate the performance of circuits based on both transistor and beyond CMOS technologies.


Link:

Erc Sector:

  • PE7_3 Simulation engineering and modelling
  • PE7_4 (Micro and nano) systems engineering
  • PE7_5 (Micro and nano) electronic, optoelectronic and photonic components

Keywords:

  • Nanoelectronics
  • Magnetic devices
  • Emerging technologies
  • Field Coupled Computing