Integration Ensures Highly Correlated Results for Nanometer-Scale Circuits

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — January 25, 2011 — Berkeley Design Automation, Inc., the nanometer circuit verification leader, and Accelicon Technologies, Inc., the leading device-modeling and PDK solutions and services provider, today announced the support of Berkeley Design Automation Analog FastSPICE Platform in Accelicon's Model Quality Assurance (MQA) product.

Circuits implemented in nanometer-scale processes have increasingly tight specifications that design teams must meet despite increasing statistical and deterministic variation. Ensuring yield while meeting these requirements with minimal margin requires high correlation between actual silicon and nanometer circuit verification using advanced device models. Delivering this capability requires a high degree of cooperation and integration between leading modeling tool and nanometer circuit simulation providers. The integration of Berkeley Design Automation Analog FastSPICE with Accelicon MQA provides an important foundation to address this need.

"Mutual customers have requested support for the Analog FastSPICE Platform in MQA," said Tim K. Smith, Accelicon’s CEO. "AFS accuracy and performance will maximize productivity of modeling engineers and designers using MQA for SPICE model validation and analysis, while ensuring outstanding correlation to silicon."

The Analog FastSPICE Platform is the industry’s only unified verification platform for nanometer analog, RF, mixed-signal, and custom digital circuits. The AFS Platform combines foundry-certified nm SPICE accuracy, 5x-10x faster single-core performance than any other SPICE circuit simulator, >10M-element capacity, and the industry’s only comprehensive silicon-accurate device noise analysis. The AFS Platform is a single executable that uses advanced algorithms and numerical analysis to rapidly solve the original device equations and full-circuit matrix without any approximations. It includes licenses for AFS Nano SPICE simulation, AFS circuit simulation, AFS Transient Noise Analysis, AFS RF Analysis, and AFS Co-Simulation.

"Accurate SPICE models are critical for IC designers, especially for nanometer high-precision analog, mixed-signal, and RF circuits," said Ravi Subramanian, president and CEO of Berkeley Design Automation. "The combination of our AFS Platform with Accelicon MQA establishes an excellent foundation for ensuring silicon correlation."

Accelicon sells the market-standard SPICE model validation and analysis solution, Model Quality Assurance (MQA), and leading SPICE model generation software, Model Builder Program (MBP). MQA provides a critical link between Fab and design, comparing, documenting, and validating foundry-supplied models. Differences between technology nodes, library versions, and even other foundry models can be assessed. MBP allows modeling engineers to tweak and optimize SPICE model library in order to best reflect silicon data and meet designers' particular requirement for a specific type of design.

About Berkeley Design Automation

Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. is the recognized leader in nanometer circuit verification. The company combines the industry’s only unified verification platform, Analog FastSPICE, with exceptional application expertise to uniquely address nm circuit design challenges. Nearly 100 companies, including most of the world’s top 20 semiconductor suppliers, rely on Berkeley Design Automation to efficiently verify their nm-scale circuits. Founded in 2003, the company has received several industry awards in recognition of its technology leadership and impact on the electronics industry. Berkeley Design Automation is privately held and backed by Woodside Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, Panasonic Corp., NTT Corp., IT-Farm, and MUFJ Capital. For more information, visit http://www.berkeley-da.com.

About Accelicon

Accelicon is the leading provider of device-level modeling solutions to the semiconductor industry. Solutions include MBP for SPICE model generation, MQA for SPICE model validation and AMA for sub-45nm design and model analysis. Accelicon, founded in 2002, serves over 100 customers throughout the world. For more information, visit http://www.accelicon.com.

Analog FastSPICE, AFS Nano, and WaveCrave are trademarks of Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. Berkeley Design and BDA are registered trademarks of Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

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