TSMC Selects Solido for Variation-Aware Custom IC Design in its Analog Mixed-Signal Reference Flow 1.0

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Solido Design Automation, Inc. today announced that TSMC has selected Solido Variation Designer for its Analog/Mixed-signal (AMS) Reference Flow 1.0 targeting TSMC 28nm advanced process technology. Solido Variation Designer will be used for the Variation-Aware Custom IC design component of TSMC's flow.

Variation effects are increasing as silicon processes shrink, and variation has become not only a foundry issue but a design issue as well. If not properly addressed, variation causes below-specification performance, schedule risk, and reduced parametric yield. For smaller technology nodes, variation-aware design methods have become a necessity across all custom IC designs including AMS, RF, I/O, memory, and standard cell digital library designs.

The Solido Variation Designer product suite combines innovative sampling techniques with TSMC models to achieve fast, accurate results for:

• PVT corner design using TSMC process corner models
• Efficient statistical design beyond traditional Monte Carlo analysis, utilizing TSMC statistical variation models for both global and local random variation
• Systematic layout effects due to well proximity using TSMC proximity effect models

"As part of our commitment to offering a robust custom IC solution that fully addresses variation issues, TSMC conducted a rigorous evaluation of Solido Variation Designer prior to including it in our first AMS Reference Flow," said Tom Quan, deputy director of design methodology and service marketing at TSMC.  "The combination of using TSMC technology with Variation Designer results in higher parametric yields, better power, performance, area and improved designer efficiency for our customers."

Solido Variation Designer together with its application packages provide speed and accuracy improvements over traditional PVT corner, Monte Carlo, and proximity analyses. Furthermore, its increased capacity allows designers to scale to hundreds of thousands of devices and samples as part of a three-step process:

1. Analyze variation impact on design specifications.
2. Identify devices sensitive to variation.
3. Fix the design to meet specifications without over-margining.

"Solido is pleased to be included in TSMC's AMS Reference Flow 1.0," said Amit Gupta, president and CEO of Solido Design Automation. "Solido's variation-aware custom IC design tools using TSMC models enable our customers to proactively cope with effects of variation on designs prior to tapeout without over-margining."

Solido Variation Designer working with TSMC technology will be demonstrated at TSMC's booth (#294) at the Design Automation Conference, June 14–16, 2010, Anaheim, California.  

About Solido Design Automation

Solido Design Automation, Inc. is a leading provider of variation-aware custom integrated circuit design software. Solido Variation Designer and application packages are used by custom IC designers spanning analog/RF, I/O, memory and standard cell digital library design teams, to improve design performance, parametric yield, and designer productivity. The privately held company is venture capital funded and has offices in the U.S.A., Canada, Japan and Europe. For further information, visit www.solidodesign.com  or call 306-382-4100.

SOURCE Solido Design Automation, Inc.