Cadence Sues Berkeley Design Automation

Cadence Sues Berkeley Design Automation
by Paul McLellan on 04-10-2013 at 10:03 am

Cadence has brought a suit against Berkeley Design Automation for, as far as I can see, integrating their AFS circuit simulator with the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment (ADE) without using the (licensed) Oasis product. Since BDA is (actually was) a member of the Cadence Connections program, they have to abide by the contract… Read More


TSMC ♥ Cadence

TSMC ♥ Cadence
by Daniel Nenni on 02-19-2013 at 11:00 am

In a shocking move TSMC now favors Cadence over Synopsys! Okay, not so shocking, especially after the Synopsys acquisitions of Magma, Ciranova, SpringSoft, and the resulting product consolidations. Not shocking to me at all since my day job is Strategic Foundry Relationships for emerging EDA, IP, and fabless companies.

Rick… Read More


Virtuoso is 20nm-ready

Virtuoso is 20nm-ready
by Paul McLellan on 01-30-2013 at 1:47 pm

I already talked about how Cadence is splitting Virtuoso into two. Anyway, it is now officially announced. The 6.1 version will continue to be developed as a sort of Virtuoso classic for people doing designs off the bleeding edge that don’t require the new features. And a new Virtuoso 12.1 intended for people doing 20nm and… Read More


Virtuoso Has Twins

Virtuoso Has Twins
by Paul McLellan on 10-18-2012 at 6:01 pm

Cadence has apparently announced that going forward the Virtuoso environment is going to be split into two and offered as two separate code-streams, the current IC6.x and a new IC12.x. The idea is to introduce a new product with features that were specifically developed for new technologies such as double patterning aware layout… Read More


Laker Wobegon, where all the layout is above average

Laker Wobegon, where all the layout is above average
by Paul McLellan on 04-17-2012 at 4:00 am

TSMC’s technnology symposium seems to be the new time to make product announcements, with ARM and Atrenta yesterday and Springsoft today.

There is a new incarnation of Springsoft’s Laker layout family, Laker[SUP]3[/SUP] (pronounced three, not cubed). The original version ran on its own proprietary database.… Read More


A Chat with John Stabenow

A Chat with John Stabenow
by Daniel Payne on 03-20-2012 at 10:57 am

John Stabenow is the marketing group director at Cadence for the Virtuoso products and it has been awhile since we last talked, so we met for lunch on Friday at McMenamins in a city called West Linn, half-way between where we both live in Oregon. I had blogged about Interoperability at DAC 2010 and we had a public exchange at Chip Design… Read More


Virtuoso has got you cornered

Virtuoso has got you cornered
by Paul McLellan on 02-07-2012 at 1:33 pm

Things you don’t know about Virtuoso: we’ve got you cornered.

That is the title on a Cadence blog item last week. It is actually about variability and how to create various corners for simulation and analysis, but given Cadence’s franchise for Virtuoso, its lock-in through SKILL-based PDKs and so forth, it … Read More


Manage Your Cadence Virtuoso Libraries, PDKs & Design IPs (Webinar)

Manage Your Cadence Virtuoso Libraries, PDKs & Design IPs (Webinar)
by Daniel Payne on 01-24-2012 at 5:01 pm

Users of Cadence Virtuoso tools for IC layout and schematics can make their design flow easier by using Design Data Management tools from ClioSoft. Keeping track of versions across schematics, layout, IP libraries and PDKs can be daunting. Come and learn more about this at a Webinar hosted by ClioSoft next Tuesday.… Read More


Cadence ClosedAccess

Cadence ClosedAccess
by Paul McLellan on 09-11-2011 at 4:00 pm

There are various rumors around about Cadence starting to close up stuff that has been open for a long time. Way back in the midst of time, as part of the acquisition of CCT, the Federal Trade Commission forced Cadence to open up LEF/DEF and allow interoperability of Cadence tools (actually only place and route) I believe for 10 years.… Read More