Article: Transistor Count: A Flawed Metric
By: David Kanter (dkanter.delete@this.realworldtech.com), January 4, 2021 9:48 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Chris L (not.delete@this.real.address) on January 3, 2021 8:39 pm wrote:
> David Kanter (dkanter.delete@this.realworldtech.com) on May 18, 2020 6:04 am wrote:
> > Many vendors brag about the complexity of their design, as measured by transistor count.
> > ... and there is no standard way of counting.
>
> Actually, the industry tends to use Gate Equivalent for the metric, e.g. when
> purchasing some IP in RTL form, the post-synthesis will be quoted in GE.
>
> That said, your other remarks about the overall design and architecture are spot on.
Thanks for sharing!
How is gate equivalent calculated in these tools? Again, decap, dummy devices, etc. seem like they would throw off the count.
David
> David Kanter (dkanter.delete@this.realworldtech.com) on May 18, 2020 6:04 am wrote:
> > Many vendors brag about the complexity of their design, as measured by transistor count.
> > ... and there is no standard way of counting.
>
> Actually, the industry tends to use Gate Equivalent for the metric, e.g. when
> purchasing some IP in RTL form, the post-synthesis will be quoted in GE.
>
> That said, your other remarks about the overall design and architecture are spot on.
Thanks for sharing!
How is gate equivalent calculated in these tools? Again, decap, dummy devices, etc. seem like they would throw off the count.
David
| Topic | Posted By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| New article: Transistor count: A Flawed Metric | David Kanter | 2020/05/18 07:04 AM |
| Non active transistors | Doug S | 2020/05/18 02:26 PM |
| Non active transistors | Ricardo B | 2020/05/18 09:12 PM |
| Minor quibble about fixed-performance ASIC | Paul A. Clayton | 2020/05/19 03:59 PM |
| Minor quibble about fixed-performance ASIC | David Kanter | 2020/05/21 06:58 AM |
| A complementary article about xtor density | Paul A. Clayton | 2020/06/02 07:07 AM |
| Low leakage transistors | David Kanter | 2020/06/02 07:53 AM |
| Transistor count: Metric is often GE | Chris L | 2021/01/03 09:39 PM |
| Transistor count: Metric is often GE | David Kanter | 2021/01/04 09:48 AM |
| Transistor count: Metric is often GE | Chris L | 2021/01/08 12:38 AM |
