Cadence offering custom-synthesized approach to PowerPC

SAN FRANCISCO — Cadence Design Systems Inc. Monday (Sept. 26) introduced a comprehensive set of services for system-on-chip (SoC) designers embedding PowerPC cores, including silicon validation of a new custom-synthesized design approach.

According to Cadence (San Jose, Calif.), the new Cadence custom-synthesized approach results in up to a 30 percent increase in processor speed and a 40 percent reduction in chip area.

Developed in close collaboration with IBM, the custom-synthesized approach provides a new schedule-performance tradeoff point for performance-minded SoC designers embedding PowerPC cores, Cadence said, and advances PowerPC portability in markets such as consumer and networking.

"The Power architecture is critical to the computing and gaming markets and is rapidly expanding into broader applications, including emerging markets in SoC," said Tom Reeves, IBM's vice president of semiconductor products and solutions, in a statement. "We expect this new custom-synthesized approach from Cadence, coupled with their expertise in design services, to help drive increased market adoption of the Power Architecture."