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Cadence Introduces Envisia Silicon Ensemble Ultra Place-and-Route Tool

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. has introduced the Envisia Silicon Ensemble ultra product family, a next-generation place and route tool designed for 0.18 micron designs. The software, named Silicon Ensemble ultra, offers concurrent placement and timing optimization, completing placements as much as five times faster than its predecessor, and increases accuracy through new interconnect extraction techniques. The product is an integral part of the Cadence system-level-constraint timing-driven design flow (SLC-TDD) to optimize high-end system-on-a-chip (SOC) designs.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Envisia Silicon Ensemble ultra product directly targets common issues of advanced design processes: timing closure, the predictability of layout turnaround time, and the ability to accurately model advanced process effects in place-and-route.
  • The software includes more than 100 performance enhancements, vastly improving designer productivity even as the complexity of silicon increases.
  • The Silicon Ensemble ultra place-and-route tool offers concurrent optimization technology that accelerates timing closure and offers a high degree of accuracy.
  • The tool integrates high-throughput, high-capacity quasi-3D interconnect extraction capability, allowing for advanced silicon process technologies with up to nine-metal-layer routing.
  • The Envisia Silicon Ensemble ultra product is shipping now and is available on UNIX-based workstations from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, and IBM Corporation.
  • The product is offered as an upgrade to Silicon Ensemble DSM for $97,000 or as a standalone product for $495,000.

Statistics:

  • 3-5x faster placement throughput than Silicon Ensemble DSM, based on advanced concurrent optimization placement algorithms.
  • 100+ performance enhancements in the Silicon Ensemble ultra place-and-route tool.
  • 5x faster runtime than its predecessor, the Cadence QPlace placement engine.
  • Support for up to 256 additional higher metal layers using the IC Craftsman autorouter.
  • The product is compatible with UNIX-based workstations from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, and IBM Corporation.

Sources:

  • Business Wire, "Cadence Design Systems, Inc. Announces the Envisia Silicon Ensemble ultra Product Family" (January 4, 1999)
  • Cadence Design Systems, Inc. website (http://www.cadence.com)
  • Cadence Design Systems, Inc. press release, "Cadence Introduces Envisia Silicon Ensemble ultra for Ultra-Deep Submicron Designs" (January 4, 1999)

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