Azure NetApp Files for EDA workloads: From revolution to breakthrough at scale

Azure NetApp Files is redefining what’s imaginable for EDA successful the cloud—delivering scalable, high-performance retention that supports monolithic concurrency, debased latency, and accordant accumulation performance. With autarkic benchmark validation and real-world adoption, organizations tin present tally EDA workloads astatine standard without accepted retention bottlenecks.

Last year, we outlined however Azure NetApp Files helped reshape silicon design by delivering the low-latency, high-throughput retention required for Electronic Design Automation (EDA) workloads astatine unreality scale. Since then, we person continued to widen show and scalability. Today, we are advancing that advancement with different important measurement forward.

Modern semiconductor plan is defined by scale. Thousands of concurrent EDA jobs spanning simulation, synthesis, and verification tally continuously against shared datasets, wherever adjacent tiny variations successful retention latency tin ripple crossed full plan cycles. For galore teams, this has historically constricted however acold EDA workflows could standard successful the cloud.

That constraint is present changing.

Azure NetApp Files (ANF) is redefining what is imaginable for EDA successful the unreality by delivering predictable, high-performance shared retention astatine monolithic concurrency. With caller autarkic benchmark results and increasing adoption by starring semiconductor companies, Azure is establishing itself arsenic a viable—and successful galore cases superior—platform for modern EDA environments.

Why EDA retention has been hard to standard successful the cloud

EDA workloads harvester 3 characteristics that person traditionally challenged unreality retention architectures:

• Extremely precocious concurrency, with thousands of jobs accessing shared record systems simultaneously.
• Strict latency sensitivity, wherever adjacent insignificant delays trim compute ratio and widen runtimes.
• Intensive shared information entree patterns, creating contention nether load.

While unreality compute scales easily, shared retention has often introduced variability that limits wide strategy efficiency. As concurrency increases, retention becomes the bottleneck, impacting regression cycles, expanding instrumentality licence costs, and slowing clip to tape-out.

For EDA teams evaluating unreality transformation, the cardinal question has remained consistent: tin retention standard with compute portion maintaining predictable performance?

A modern approach: Azure NetApp Files for EDA astatine scale

Azure NetApp Files is designed specifically to code this challenge. Its architecture aligns straight to the requirements of highly parallel, shared workloads similar EDA.

At its core, ANF enables autarkic scaling of compute and storage, truthful EDA clusters tin turn without retention becoming the constraint, and further compute nodes bash not present hotspots oregon contention astatine the retention layer. It natively supports concurrent metadata operations astatine scale, handling the millions of tiny record interactions emblematic of EDA workflows without degradation. And its service-level show exemplary ensures that throughput and IOPS standard predictably with capacity, eliminating the request for analyzable tuning.

More recently, innovations specified arsenic ample volumes and ample volumes breakthrough mode person expanded the concurrency envelope adjacent further. These capabilities let thousands of parallel jobs to stock a azygous retention situation portion maintaining accordant latency nether sustained load.

This delivers what cloud-based EDA systems person agelong struggled to provide: consistent, repeatable performance, not lone astatine debased utilization, but besides nether afloat accumulation load.

Independent validation: SPECstorage® Solution 2020 benchmark results

To validate these capabilities successful a real-world context, Azure NetApp Files was measured utilizing the industry-standard SPECstorage® Solution 2020 EDA_BLENDED benchmark. This benchmark simulates realistic EDA workflows by combining metadata-intensive frontend operations with throughput-heavy backend processing, each nether strict latency requirements.

The Azure NetApp Files ample measurement breakthrough mode standard configuration reached 17,280 SPECstorage® Solution 2020 EDA_BLENDED JOBS with an wide effect clip of 0.60 milliseconds (ms).

These results show respective important characteristics:

• The quality to prolong precise precocious levels of concurrent EDA workloads.
• Consistently debased effect times nether load.
• Linear scaling behaviour arsenic concurrency increases.
• No request for overprovisioning.

Historically, apical benchmark outcomes successful this class person been associated with tightly integrated on-premises systems. This validation underscores a broader displacement successful the industry: erstwhile architected correctly, cloud-based EDA infrastructure tin not lone lucifer on-premises approaches, but successful immoderate scenarios surpass them successful some standard and operational efficiency.

Proven successful production: EDA workloads already moving connected ANF

This show is not constricted to benchmarks. Organizations specified arsenic AMD and ASML are already utilizing Azure NetApp Files to tally EDA and high-performance plan workloads successful accumulation environments.

These companies run astatine the starring borderline of semiconductor innovation, wherever infrastructure indispensable enactment some utmost standard and precise predictability. Their adoption of ANF reflects a broader manufacture trend: moving EDA workloads to the unreality is nary longer experimental, it is becoming a strategical advantage.

These customers, on with others, consistently study the aforesaid operational benefits:

• The quality to summation regression concurrency without show degradation.
• Improved utilization of compute resources and reduced EDA instrumentality licence fees.
• Greater predictability successful plan cycles, enabling much assured scheduling of cardinal milestones.

In this context, retention is nary longer the limiting factor—it becomes an enabler of scale.

How Azure helps EDA teams standard with confidence

Organizations person flexibility successful however they deploy EDA environments with Azure NetApp Files, depending connected workload characteristics and operational priorities.

Some teams take a centralized exemplary built astir a azygous ample measurement to maximize throughput and tightly power latency. Others follow a multi-volume attack to administer workloads and standard concurrency crossed antithetic occupation types. Many enterprises widen existing on-premises environments into Azure, utilizing unreality capableness to sorb highest request without imperishable infrastructure expansion.

Across each of these patterns, 1 rule remains consistent: retention show indispensable standard predictably alongside compute. Azure NetApp Files provides that foundation.

Azure NetApp Files delivers the consistent, high‑throughput NFS show that modern EDA workloads demand, shrinking runtimes, accelerating tape‑out schedules, and giving spot designers the assurance that retention volition ne'er beryllium the bottleneck.

Srikanth Gubbala, Head of Global HPC Infrastructure, Applied Materials

Bringing it each together

The improvement of unreality retention for EDA marks an important inflection constituent for the semiconductor industry. What was erstwhile considered a tradeoff—scale versus predictability—is nary longer a constraint.

With Azure NetApp Files, organizations tin confidently tally highly concurrent EDA workloads successful the cloud, supported by architecture designed for their circumstantial demands and validated by autarkic benchmarking.

For teams exploring however to modernize their EDA infrastructure, the way guardant is progressively clear. Cloud-based retention tin present conscionable the requirements of adjacent the astir demanding plan environments, portion offering the flexibility to standard arsenic workloads proceed to grow.

For a deeper method exploration of the benchmark configuration and plan considerations, spot the companion Azure Tech Community method blog: “From standard to breakthrough: Azure NetApp Files sets a caller unreality benchmark for EDA.”

For further information, research the Azure NetApp Files documentation oregon email [email protected].