Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS)
, a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and
manufacturing, today announced that Synopsys and TSMC have entered into a comprehensive
multi-year agreement to jointly develop, validate, support and distribute interoperable
process design kits (iPDKs) that are optimized for TSMC advanced semiconductor
processes including the 65-nanometer (nm), 40-nm and 28-nm nodes. The agreement
is the culmination of a two-year collaboration to establish an interoperable
PDK ecosystem that can accelerate and broaden designer access to new process
nodes, promote design reuse and enable greater analog, mixed-signal and RF design
innovation. Additionally, TSMC has adopted Synopsys' Galaxy Custom Designer(TM)
implementation solution as its iPDK development and validation platform.
"We are creating new business models and innovations such as iPDK under
TSMC's Open Innovation Platform(TM)," said ST Juang, senior director of
Design Infrastructure Marketing at TSMC. "Synopsys has a highly skilled
and dedicated team with expertise in developing advanced, high-quality interoperable
PDKs, and offers the industry's most open custom design platform that supports
iPDKs. This collaborative approach will help to more quickly deliver iPDKs to
our mutual customers so that they can begin capitalizing on the benefits of
an interoperable ecosystem."
Synopsys was lead developer in the collaborative effort to develop and validate
a complete TSMC 65-nm iPDK. Working directly with the TSMC PDK development team
and other EDA vendors, Synopsys developed an iPDK that supports the analog,
mixed-signal and RF flow on multiple EDA vendor tools. Synopsys and TSMC also
collaborated on implementing a comprehensive iPDK development and validation
solution based on Custom Designer. TSMC validated its recently-announced 65-nm
iPDK to work with Synopsys' custom design solution, including Custom Designer,
HSPICE circuit simulation, CustomSim(TM) circuit simulation, IC Validator/Hercules(TM)
LVS/DRC and Star-RCXT(TM) extraction.
"Open standards are the catalyst for accelerating innovation, increasing
competition and fostering growth in the electronics industry," said Paul
Lo, senior vice president and general manager of the Analog/Mixed-Signal Group
at Synopsys. "Synopsys' open-environment custom design platform and interoperable
PDK expertise, coupled with TSMC's comprehensive PDK production capability,
has enabled us to move the industry forward to realize the benefits of an interoperable
custom design ecosystem. This is a major step for the entire semiconductor industry."