Nassda and Silicon Metrics Announce Joint Effort for Automated Memory Timing Solution.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2001

Nassda Corporation and Silicon Metrics Corporation today announced a joint effort to deliver the EDA industry's first fully automated, high-capacity characterization and modeling solution for embedded compiled memories. The two companies have worked together to integrate Nassda's high-capacity, high-performance HSIM(TM) circuit simulator and Silicon Metrics' SiliconSmart MR(TM) memory characterization and modeling toolset. The combined solution brings high quality, high-throughput embedded memory characterization and modeling to the systems-on-a-chip (SoC) designer's desktop, speeding up full-chip timing and power sign-off.

SiliconSmart MR, also announced today by Silicon Metrics, is the industry's first fully-automated solution for characterization and modeling of embedded compiled memories. HSIM and SiliconSmart MR represent a synergy of industry-leading technologies, combining Nassda's hierarchical full-chip circuit verification tool and Silicon Metrics' characterization and modeling tool. This combination addresses a critical need for increased throughput and accuracy in verification tasks that are key to successful sign-off and first-pass silicon success with today's 150-nanometer (nm) and below process technologies.

HSIM is the only full-chip circuit verification tool on the market today that has the capacity, speed, and accuracy for verifying timing and power behavior and signal integrity effects in today's nanometer silicon technology. SiliconSmart MR relies on HSIM for generating the detailed characterization parameters used in high-accuracy models that are needed for timing and power analysis. In turn, SiliconSmart MR uses this characterization data for automatic model generation and verification.

"New technologies are the key to creating breakthrough solutions that are embraced by the industry," said Sang Wang, Nassda CEO. "Combining our circuit simulation and analysis expertise with Silicon Metrics characterization and modeling know-how will immediately benefit those SoC design teams requiring high-accuracy timing and power models to achieve sign-off with confidence."

"SoC design teams require increasingly accurate methods for characterization and modeling. Nassda and Silicon Metrics are uniquely positioned to meet these growing needs," said Callan Carpenter, president and CEO of Silicon Metrics. "Each company is a market leader in its respective domain, and both share a vision, willingness and ability to respond quickly to growing demands in SoC design and verification."

Key Technologies

HSIM has been developed to perform full-chip circuit simulation and analysis with an accuracy within one to three percent of SPICE but at a speed three to four orders of magnitude faster than SPICE with capacity of over one billion transistors. It is suitable for use in designing, verifying and characterizing nanometer memory, analog and mixed-signal SoC circuits. It also calculates voltage (IR) drop, capacitive cross-coupling, and inductive bouncing effects in these circuits. In addition, HSIM's proprietary RC reduction algorithm can reduce interconnect parasitics while maintaining excellent accuracy and performance. The parasitics reduction, plus speed, capacity and accuracy advantages, make HSIM a premier post-layout verification and optimization tool. Many design teams have experienced first-silicon success by using HSIM.

Silicon Metrics' patented characterization and modeling technologies provide unique instance-specific operating point (ISOP) models that account for variations in process, voltage and temperature across designs targeted for advanced nanometer process technologies. With their high accuracy, ISOP models help designers avoid pessimistic timing strategies, such as guard-banding, and exploit the full performance potential of nanometer process technologies. Silicon Metrics SiliconSmart(TM) Models combine the accuracy of ISOP capability with the throughput advantages of the industry-standard Open Library Architecture (OLA). By using SiliconSmart Models with OLA-compliant, third-party design tools, designers are now able to achieve more accurate timing sign-off of higher speed designs more quickly than with previous generation sign-off methodologies.

About Nassda

Nassda Corporation (Santa Clara, Calif.) develops and markets full-chip nanometer circuit simulation and analysis solutions for advanced IC designs, especially for memory and mixed-signal SoC designs. Nassda's HSIM product is the leading post-layout verification and analysis tool for achieving first silicon success and improving product quality and production yield. For more information about Nassda, please check the company's website at http://www.nassda.com.

About Silicon Metrics

Silicon Metrics Corporation is a privately held company based in Austin. The company has offices in Austin and San Jose, Calif. and a research and testing facility in Research Park at Mississippi State University. Marubeni Solutions in Japan represents Silicon Metrics Corporation. Company investors include Austin Ventures, Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, Inc., Current Ventures, and Needham Capital Partners. The Silicon Metrics team brings decades of combined electrical engineering and electronic design automation (EDA) experience to bear on the challenge of eliminating silicon re-spins caused by timing flaws. For more information, visit Silicon Metrics online at www.siliconmetrics.com.

Note to Editors: HSIM is a trademark of Nassda Corporation. Silicon Metrics, the Silicon Metrics logo, and SiliconSmart are trademarks or registered trademarks of Silicon Metrics Corporation. All other company or product names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.