SAN JOSE -- Cadence Design Systems Inc. and PDF Solutions Inc. here today (March 13) announced plans to co-develop a line of yield-analysis software tools for making analog and mixed-signal chips.
The software tools will be designed to improve the performances and yields of chips from both fabless chip makers and integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), according to the companies.
Cadence and PDF Solutions have teamed up to provide a software solution based on Cadence's analog-oriented EDA tools and PDF's Circuit Surfer products. Circuit Surfer is a statistical circuit design exploration environment for maximizing the yields and performance of chips.
The tool helps chip designers estimate how manufacturing process variations, including transistor mismatch, will impact circuit performances. The incorporation of realistic worst-case modeling and RSM-based statistical design validation helps designers avoid over and under design of analog ICs with minimal overhead.
"Cadence's strength in analog/mixed-signal design solutions combined with our strength in yield-ramping solutions will provide customers with a way to pre-qualify designs so they yield right from the start," said John Kibarian, president and CEO of San Jose-based PDF.
"With ever increasing design and process complexity, you cannot drop a design into manufacturing and expect to achieve timing, speed, and yield targets within market windows," he said. "An understanding of the interactions between design and process is essential to good yield. With this agreement, a broad spectrum of designers now have access to the technology to do this."
Circuit Surfer, which will be integrated into Cadence's analog design environment, will be available from Cadence in the second quarter of 2001.
RSS
Digital
HDD roadmap:
The hard disk drive (HDD) industry finds its lifeblood in a technology roadmap. The areal density roadmap describes the number of magnetic bits per unit area on the disk platter--thereby defining the storage capacity.
10 CEOs out in 2009:
It's been a tough year for the global electronics industry and CEOs. We survey the dismissal of 10 industry CEOs during the first three quarters of 2009 and what's ahead for the rest of the year.
Top 10 IC vendors with cash:
The world's biggest IC companies by revenue rank not only among the best in their respective industry segments but are also more likely to have huge piles of cash that can be used to fund acquisitions, R&D and product development
10 companies in trouble (revisited):
What follows is an updated version of 10 companies in trouble. Some companies have been removed since the last version, others remain. Still others have been added to the mix.
MIPS to go after the cellphone?:
ARM dominates the global cell phone market, and many industry observers scoff at MIPS as a viable player in mobile phone designs. But MIPS disclosed that over the next one or two years' time, there will be MIPS-based handsets shipped.
Hot technologies to watch for in 2009:
Every technologist, marketer, industry analyst and reporter on a hunt for the next big thing is bracing for the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show scheduled less than a month away.
Notable women in microelectronics
EE Times has compiled an international list that celebrates women who are business and technology leaders in microelectronics.
EE Times updates Silicon 60
Seventeen companies have been added to the lastest version of our Silicon 60 list of emerging startups. Forty-three companies survived as emerging companies that are still worth watching.
RSS| 
Digital| 
Mobile
