infoTECH Feature

October 20, 2009

STARC and Cadence Develop Next-Gen Analog/Mixed-Signal Reference Flow

Cadence Design Systems and STARC will jointly develop the Japanese electronic design consortium's next-generation analog/mixed-signal reference flow. Cadence Virtuoso IC 6.1 technology reportedly will be used as the platform for developing the STARCAD-AMS flow.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cadence enables global electronic design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today's integrated circuits and electronics. STARC is a consortium made up of 10 electronics companies, and six of these companies participate in the areas of analog and mixed-signal design.
 
STARC also validates and supports the best design flow for client companies. According to Cadence, they were selected for the flow project because Virtuoso IC 6.1 technology met STARC's strict criteria.
 
In a release, Yoshio Okamura, vice president of STARC's Development Department-2, expressed the organization’s excitement to work with Cadence on its analog/mixed-signal reference flow.
 
"The members of STARC agreed that Cadence was the obvious choice for this collaboration, and we're anticipating results that will be just as helpful to our customers as the digital design flow we developed with Cadence," said Okamura.
 
Cadence officials said the new reference flow will be introduced at client companies as STARC's standard design flow. This flow is expected to deliver a comprehensive analog/mixed-signal environment and promises both greater productivity and improved quality of results.
 
By supporting more advanced custom design techniques, including both schematic and constraint-driven layout and process variations, the new flow will enable users to build more manufacturing-robust designs. Users can then implement these custom blocks and verify them within larger SoCs.
 
STARC earlier built its reference flow for digital designs on the Cadence Encounter Digital Implementation System. This is STARC's first reference flow for analog/mixed-signal designs, said officials.
 
Chi-Ping Hsu, senior vice president, research and development in the Cadence Implementation Group noted that STARC customers will be well-served by the reference flow they are designing.
 
“We look forward to helping make STARCAD-AMS an extremely successful and valuable project,” he said.

Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard
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