MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The Interoperable PDK Libraries (IPL) Alliance announced today that X-FAB Silicon Foundries has joined the IPL Alliance, a standards organization whose charter is to establish an interoperable custom design ecosystem. X-FAB, the leading foundry group for analog/mixed-signal semiconductor applications, is making interoperable process design kits (iPDKs) available for its most popular foundry processes ranging from 0.6 to 0.13 micrometers.
The IPL Alliance, which includes major electronic design automation (EDA), semiconductor and foundry companies, released the industry’s first open standard for iPDKs for analog/mixed-signal designs in 2010. The iPDK standard is based on the OpenAccess database and uses standard languages and a unified architecture to enable interoperability among all EDA vendor tools. Engineering teams only need to develop a single PDK for each process node, which reduces development costs, shortens design cycles and provides designers with earlier access to advanced process technologies across multiple tools.
X-FAB is the leading analog/mixed-signal foundry group manufacturing silicon wafers for analog-digital integrated circuits (mixed-signal ICs). X-FAB maintains wafer production facilities in Erfurt and Dresden (Germany); Lubbock, Texas (US); and Kuching, Sarawak (Malaysia); and employs approximately 2,400 people worldwide. Wafers are manufactured based on advanced modular CMOS and BiCMOS processes with technologies ranging from 1.0 to 0.13 micrometers, for applications primarily in the automotive, communications, consumer and industrial sectors.
“We are committed to helping our customers make their analog/mixed-signal designs more robust and get to market faster,” said Thomas Ramsch, director of design support at X-FAB. “Therefore, after extensive evaluation, we decided to join the IPL Alliance, adopt the iPDK standard and provide our customers with X-FAB iPDKs. We believe the standardization of PDKs can significantly lower the cost and reduce the effort for analog IP migration. By next month, X-FAB will be able to deliver iPDKs, for all supported EDA tools that work with the OpenAccess database, four times faster than before.”
“iPDKs are proven and provide semiconductor foundries significant benefits such as reducing PDK development and validation time, lowering support and distribution costs and enabling advanced design flows and multiple EDA tool support,” said Jingwen Yuan, president of the IPL Alliance and strategic alliance manager at Synopsys. “We are happy to add leading analog/mixed signal foundry X-FAB to our growing number of foundry members.”
About the IPL Alliance
The IPL Alliance is an industry standards organization established to develop an interoperable ecosystem for custom design by creating and promoting interoperable PDK standards. There are currently 30 semiconductor and EDA company members. For more information, please visit the IPL Alliance web site at http://www.IPLnow.com or contact info@iplnow.com
