SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 5, 2011 – Magma Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA), a provider of chip design software, today announced that Diodes Incorporated (Nasdaq: DIOD), a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, has used FineSim™ SPICE multi-CPU circuit simulation technology to tape out two highly integrated synchronous switching voltage regulators. The AP6502 and AP6503, 340 kHz switching frequency external compensated synchronous DC/DC buck converters, are designed for use in consumer electronics systems such as digital TVs, LCD monitors and set-top boxes, which require ultra-efficient voltage conversion. Utilizing FineSim SPICE multi-CPU simulation technology, Diodes Incorporated significantly reduced simulation runtime, enabling them to increase simulation coverage by 3X to 4X without sacrificing accuracy.
“With our previous circuit simulator, long simulation times forced us to trade off between simulation coverage with parasitic extraction and on-time tape out of our DC/DC switching regulators,” said Julie Holland, vice president of Worldwide Analog Products at Diodes Incorporated. “The performance of FineSim SPICE enabled us to improve simulation coverage and achieve better silicon-to-simulation correlation, allowing us to deliver a higher quality product to market faster.”
“In high-growth end-user equipment markets that companies such as Diodes Incorporated compete in, the performance and time-to-market requirements are demanding,” said Anirudh Devgan, general manager of Magma’s Custom Design Business Unit. “Diodes Incorporated’s excellent results using FineSim SPICE demonstrates the software’s ability to simulate the toughest designs fast and accurately and to enable chip developers to meet critical requirements.”
FineSim SPICE: Fast and Accurate Simulation
FineSim SPICE is a SPICE-level simulation analysis tool that incorporates transistor-level simulation analysis capabilities for mixed-signal and analog designs. FineSim SPICE is a full SPICE simulation engine with distributed processing that enables customers to simulate large-scale mixed-signal system chips at the transistor level. By providing increased speed and capacity while maintaining full SPICE accuracy, FineSim SPICE enables designers to simulate advanced circuits – such as PLLs, ADCs (analog-to-digital converters), DACs (digital-to-analog converters) and gigahertz SERDES (SERializer/DESerializer) – that they previously would not even attempt using slower traditional SPICE simulators.
About Magma
Leading semiconductor companies worldwide use Magma’s electronic design automation (EDA) software to produce chips for a wide variety of vertical markets including tablet computing, mobile devices, electronic games, digital video, networking, military/aerospace and memory. Silicon One, Magma’s technology solutions for emerging silicon, address time to market, product differentiation, cost and performance while making silicon more profitable. Magma products include software for digital design, analog implementation, mixed-signal design, physical verification, circuit simulation, characterization and yield management. The company maintains headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and offices throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Magma’s stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Follow Magma on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/MagmaEDA and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Magma. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.
