Seems like there are two kinds of EDA tool announcements. Most of them introduce new capabilities – support for a new process node or a new lithography technique or new precision. But occasionally you get what I’ll call the “re-writes.” This is where folks at the EDA company look ahead and realize that their underlying infrastructure and engines, while once quite capable, are starting to buckle under the weight of the ever-increasing load.

So, even though you mostly want to support new stuff, occasionally you’ve got to refurbish the infrastructure. That can take years to do, but, if done right, you set yourself up for years to come. (And then, yeah, you’ll probably have to do it again.)

ProPlus’s latest BSIMProPlus release has that feel. They say they’ve set themselves up for the next 20 years. New GUI and everything.

Of course, this isn’t just about doing old stuff better; it comes with a payoff in new capabilities. They’re claiming:

• Better support for 16/14-nm FinFETs
• Support for sub-28-nm FDSOI
• Process variation modeling
• A three-fold increase in speed

But the other piece of it is taking disparate tools for slightly different tasks and unifying them under the new GUI. In addition to integrating their NanoSpice engine more tightly, they now have one environment for doing

• IV/CV modeling
• RF modeling
• 1/f and thermal noise analysis
• Modeling layout-dependent effects (LDE)
• Statistical and corner analysis
• Reliability analysis
• Development of custom models

You can find out more in their announcement.

(Image courtesy ProPlus.)