The tool, Sahara-PTE, offers accuracy, capacity, performance and ease-of-use for convergence of power and thermal distribution, according to Apache (Mountain View, Calif.).

Power remains a "hot" topic in IC design, particularly at 90-nanometer and below. But existing commercial EDA tools focus strictly on thermal analysis, according to Andrew Yang, Apache's chairman and CEO, who argues that thermal analysis is only one of three necessary components to understanding the impact of chip temperature on leakage, metal resistivity, interconnect self-heating, voltage drop and other areas.

"Thermal analysis cannot be a standalone solution," Yang told EE Times. "It does not make sense. Thermal analysis only makes sense in the context of power and electrical."

To that end, Sahara-PTE (which stands for power, thermal, electrical) goes beyond thermal analysis to include power analysis of heat generation elements such as switching and leakage power, and electrical analysis of temperature-dependent resistances and devices on electro-migration, voltage-drop, timing and power.

By considering the temperature variation across the chip instead of using constant corner values, Sahara-PTE provides a more accurate full-chip critical path and clock timing for silicon sign-off, according to Apache.

Providing designers with a quantitative thermal analysis tool will aid them in making choices for things like packaging, heat sinks and cooling systems, Yang said.

Heat and power have become arguably the biggest design challenge for designs at 65-nm and below. According to Yang, the problem is more widespread then most think and will affect designs that many believe are immune.

"People who are designing mobile SoCs, where power is orders of magnitude less than an advanced microprocessor, might not think that they need a thermal analysis tool," Yang said. "But this is a misconception. In trying to save space in these devices, they stack the chips right on top of each other. This could trap heat and create serious problems."

Sahara is based on Apaches 3-D thermal model and the high-capacity kernel from the company's proven RedHawk dynamic power analysis and optimization tool. It takes in the location-based boundary temperature conditions or extracted package thermal model for fast and accurate power-thermal convergence, Apache said.

Sahara-PTE will be available this quarter for production use, Apache said. The U.S. list price for annual licensing starts at $160,000, the company said.