CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
18 October 2007
Product News
SMIC and Magma Announce Availability of Enhanced Reference Flow for SMIC's 90-Nanometer Low-Power Process
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation and Magma® Design Automation Inc . jointly announced the availability of an enhanced low-power IC implementation reference flow for SMIC's 90-nanometer (nm) process featuring Magma's Blast PowerT, Blast Fusion® and Blast CreateT.
The SMIC-Magma flow utilizes SMIC 's 90-nm standard cell and IO libraries with multi-threshold CMOS (MTCMOS) technology, along with Magma's low-power design flow, automatic switched domain creation, retention flip-flop insertion and power analysis for active and sleep modes, to optimize dynamic power and minimize leakage power for customer designs based on SMIC's advanced 90-nm technologies.
Blast Power, a key component of Magma's low-power design methodology, uses MTCMOS switches that control leakage power by connecting global constant power rails to local switched power rails. These switches effectively allow certain blocks in the design to be powered off depending on the mode of operation of the chip, thereby significantly reducing leakage power. It also meets leakage power requirements with libraries that automatically select the cells most suitable to control leakage. Blast Power optimizes dynamic power with flexible voltage islands that selectively shut down different regions of a chip and it uses automatic power grid synthesis to enable optimal power distribution.
"The adoption of Magma's enhanced low-power RTL-to-GDSII reference flow for our 90-nm process reiterates the commitment both companies have to helping customers deliver complex, low-power ICs faster," said David Lin, division head of Design Services at SMIC. "We will continue to build our solid relationship with Magma to provide leading-edge solutions that meet the low-power design needs of our customers."
"The availability of this enhanced low-power reference flow clearly strengthens our partnership with SMIC, a leader in IC manufacturing," said Kam Kittrell, general manager of Magma's Design Implementation Business Unit. "Our design flow provides leading-edge power optimization capabilities that enable our customers to successfully compete in many high-growth markets, including handheld devices such as cell phones and MP3 players."
The low-power reference flow guides designers through an RTL-to-GDSII methodology enabling fast, optimal timing-versus-power and area-versus-power tradeoffs at different stages of the implementation flow. With the ability to address power considerations during implementation and within a single environment, designers can minimize the power consumption of the design and reduce turnaround time.
The low-power reference flow data package is available now for customer download. Please log in to SMIC-Now , the dedicated online service for SMIC customers, to get the reference flow.
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