Reuse methodologies are now widely used to design digital circuits. They are based on the concept of intellectual property (IP), or virtual block of computing, characterized by a behavioral model, synthesizable or not. The design reuse for analog integrated systems is much less natural and less standardized. This paper addresses the issue of an analog design flow based on reuse, focusing on three key issues: the formal content of the IP block, the design of a reusable analog IP, and the organization of a design flow centered on an IP library. After a conceptual overview, this paper presents the methodological principles and details examples with a tutorial intention. The objective is to guide the designer involved in the process of developing analog IPs and corresponding design flow. This method is inspired by platform-based design and adapted here on an original case study: the design of full-custom neuromimetic integrated circuits, built from specific analog computational blocks. The development of reusable IPs represents an additional effort, mainly for behavioral modeling and characterization. Nevertheless, the steps illustrated in this case study show that the extra time provides a definite advantage to future design projects.

Bioelectronic systems using multielectrodes arrays (MEAs) make possible new experiments, based on long term analysis of neural system at the network level. In this paper we present an experimental platform that processes signals from a 60 electrode MEA and runs event (spike, burst, and stimulus artifact) detection and statistic in real-time. The minimum processing task (storage and monitoring) takes 25 mus and the full one takes 60 mus. The data is available for online and offline analysis: on the computer's screen, on the computer's hard disk, and on the TCP/IP layer.

This paper describes an automatic procedure to generate any kind of noise source model, in time domain, including amplitude noise, phase noise or jitter. This approach is particularly suited for discrete-time circuits and systems. The inputs are the noise spectrum characteristics and the output is the VHDL-AMS code of the noise model. As an illustration, examples of a noisy sine wave and a jittered clock are generated, then analysed to validate the procedure.