DRC+, DFM, CMP, Variablility

DRC+, DFM, CMP, Variablility
by Daniel Payne on 02-10-2011 at 12:42 pm

When I worked at Intel as a circuit design engineer I could talk directly with the technology development engineers to understand how to really push my DRAM designs and get the smallest possible memory cell layout that would still yield well, provide fast access time, and long refresh cycles.

(United States Patent 6661699. Inventor:… Read More


Keynote Address at the 16th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference

Keynote Address at the 16th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference
by Daniel Nenni on 02-06-2011 at 6:23 pm

"Managing increasing complexity through higher-level of abstraction: What the past has taught us about the future" Dr. Ajoy Bose, Atrenta CEO

Here is the abstract:
Time to market and design complexity challenges are well-known; we have all seen the statistics and predictions. A well-defined strategy to address Read More


iPDK is the way to go for AMS designs

iPDK is the way to go for AMS designs
by Daniel Payne on 01-19-2011 at 3:47 pm

294 towerjazz logo1 jpg

I just read the press release from TowerJazz and Tanner EDA about how an AMS designer can use schematic symbols and layout generators in Tanner EDA tools for the TowerJazz 0.18um node. This is made possible because of the growing iPDK (Interoperable Process Design Kits) movement.

In the old days each foundry would have to staff up… Read More


Getting to the 32nm/28nm Common Platform node with Mentor IC Tools

Getting to the 32nm/28nm Common Platform node with Mentor IC Tools
by Daniel Payne on 01-17-2011 at 6:04 pm

Last week I talked with two experts at Mentor about the challenges of getting IC designs into the 32nm/28nm node on the Common Platform (IBM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung). Global Foundries issued a press release talking about how the four major EDA companies have worked together to qualify EDA tools for this node.

Sudhakar Jilla,… Read More


EDA Mergers and Acquisition

EDA Mergers and Acquisition
by Daniel Payne on 01-17-2011 at 3:15 pm

I met Ian Getreu in Oregon at a monthly EDA networking luncheon several years ago and have kept in touch with him. Ian co-founded Analogy which was later acquired by Avant! (now Synopsys). One thing that Ian noticed over the years was that smaller EDA companies were constantly getting acquired by the bigger and publicly traded EDA… Read More


EDA360 in PC Today

EDA360 in PC Today
by Paul McLellan on 01-10-2011 at 8:29 pm

At the EDAC CEO panel, Daniel pointed out that he used EDA360 as a good introduction to non-specialists (e.g. financial sector). I just discovered today that the cover article of PC Today is by John Bruggeman (well, Cadence) about EDA360. Having some idea of just how difficult it is to get that sort of specialist article into a general… Read More


The Future of Semiconductor Design!

The Future of Semiconductor Design!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-26-2010 at 10:15 pm

Is EDA still an appropriate term for what we do? What applications will drive future semiconductor design innovation? Will further consolidation be required for EDA to thrive again? They are all good questions, questions that will hopefully be properly addressed at the EDAC CEO Forecast and Industry Vision event next week but… Read More


Mentor – Cadence Merger and the Federal Trade Commission

Mentor – Cadence Merger and the Federal Trade Commission
by Daniel Nenni on 12-12-2010 at 5:33 pm


More consolidation is coming to EDA and so is the Federal Trade Commission. Corporate raider Carl Ichan owns 15% of Mentor Graphics and now owns 1% of Cadence. Ichan buddy multi billionaire George Soros, a long time CDNS investor, just purchased more than 76 million convertible notes of MENT.You do the math…

Unfortunately the FTC… Read More


Webinar on Accelerating Analog Layout Productivity

Webinar on Accelerating Analog Layout Productivity
by Daniel Payne on 12-08-2010 at 11:58 pm

MONROVIA, California – December 7, 2010 – With pressure to reduce time to market and with resources increasingly constrained, tools that can enable maximum productivity for analog and mixed-signal design are mission-critical. Tanner EDA, the catalyst for innovation for the design, layout and verification of analog and mixed-signal… Read More


Tanner EDA Then and Now

Tanner EDA Then and Now
by Daniel Payne on 11-26-2010 at 9:44 pm

tanner then now


Looking back at an early issue of a Tanner Research newsletter, “Tanner Tools News”, from the mid-1990s, the theme at that time was growth, just as it is again now for Tanner EDA. At that time we were averaging 66% revenue growth per year, enjoying rapid growth as a small start-up. Fast-forward to current day, where we… Read More