TAU Contest 2020

TAU 2020 would like to invite students to participate in this year's contest on delay calculator using current source models.

Contest Description

With 45 nano meter and below process technology node, impact wire resistance & miller capacitance on circuit delay are non-ignorant. So, delay calculation using voltage based model like Non Linear Delay Model (aka NLDM) could not be accurate for some of the designs which are manufactured in 45 nm and below process technology node. To overcome these challenges, EDA vendors have proposed new timing models, Current Source Model (aka CSM). Static Timing Analysis (aka STA) tools require new methods for delay calculation using CSM. Most of the commercial STA tools can do timing analysis using current source model but none of the open source STA tool have that capability yet.

To give the students exposure to latest industry trend and to contribute into the open-source community selected topic of TAU 2020 contest is to develop a delay calculator for current source model. Participants will write code for computing cell delay using up table of Current Source Models . Refer this overview document for detail information about the topic of contest.

Awards

Top performers will receive monetary prizes for their achievements.

• 1st place - The TimeKeepers, University of Thessaly
• 2nd place - iTimer, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Participation

If you are interested in participating, please fill out the registration form by October 31th, 2019. Alternatively, you may send an email to tau.contest@gmail.com with the following information:

• Name(s)
• School/University
• Contact email(s)
• Adviser name [if applicable]
• Team Name [optional]

To get started and learn more about the contest topic, start by reading over contest overview document under Resources. It will give a high-level overview of the contest topic.

Important Dates

All dates below are tentative!

• Contest Release August 18th, 2019
• Contest Registration Deadline October 31st, 2019
• Alpha Binaries Due February 1st, 2020
• Final Binaries Due February 15th, 2020 February 22nd, 2020
• Announcement of Winners (at TAU 2020) in March, 2020

Updates and Announcements

-> Contest registration is closed on October 31st 2019. Eleven team from different University have registered for the contest.

-> Added three documents for contest education under resource section.

-> Updated page of FAQ.

-> Code Infrastructure of contest is released under Github at https://github.com/geochrist/dctk

-> Result Announced on March 15th, 2020.

Contest Organizers

Contact

For any questions, concerns, or feedback regarding the contest, please email tau <dot> contest <at> gmail <dot> com.