Prolific's ProGenesis DFM is the latest release of ProGenesis, which helps designers generate standard-cell libraries. ProGenesis produces libraries from Spice netlists, process-specific design rules and designer-specified options. ProGenesis DFM adds some 20 "manufacturing enhancement practices" that can be selected, and weighted, by the user.

Dan Nenni, Prolific's vice president of sales and marketing, said ProGenesis has been viewed as a "nice to have" tool down to the 90-nanometer node, but is becoming a "got to have" tool below 90 nm. A prime reason, he said, is the incredible pressure for DFM, which is difficult to implement by hand at the cell level.

"When people develop libraries, they're a year or so ahead of the design game," said Nenni. "We finished 90 nanometers late last year and we've started on 65 nanometers this year. The companies we work with are impressing upon us that DFM is compelling at 90 nanometers and critical at 65 nanometers."

Nenni said Prolific developed ProGenesis DFM with help from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., United Microelectronics Corp. and IBM Corp.

Area, performance focus

The 20 "practices" of ProGenesis DFM fall into three basic categories, Nenni said: foundry design rules; design practices; and changes needed to support optical and process correction and phase-shift mask technologies.

A key aspect of ProGenesis DFM is its ability to focus on rules and practices that don't compromise area and performance, he said. "If you implement all recommended [DFM] design rules, you get a 30 percent area hit. With an automated tool like ProGenesis, you can tell it to only implement rules that don't inflate area," he said.

Users control the tool by assigning "weights" to various rules, as well as area, power and performance. They can perform what-if analyses and juggle trade-offs.

Foundry-specific design rules for TSMC, UMC and IBM are provided as plug-ins, but ProGenesis DFM can support anybody's rules, Nenni said.

"At 0.13 micron, yield numbers were a resounding disappointment," Nenni said. "Ninety nanometers is even more complex, and people are putting yield as a higher priority."