TowerJazz Reference Design Flow 2.0 fully qualifies Cadence mixed-signal solution and PDK

SAN JOSE, USA: Cadence Design Systems Inc. announced that TowerJazz, a leading specialty foundry that manufactures integrated circuits worldwide, has qualified the Cadence mixed-signal solution for the TowerJazz Reference Design Flow 2.0.

The new reference design flow features mixed-signal power management techniques that incorporate the Cadence Encounter Digital Implementation System and Virtuoso technologies with a unified custom/analog and digital flow for TowerJazz's TS018PM 180-nanometer and TS035PM 350-nanometer bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) power management process technologies. These innovative process technologies provide industry-leading features to integrate power management devices together with control logic.

Cadence products are qualified at the world's leading foundries, helping enable production of some of the most advanced and complex ICs, including mixed-signal chips that serve as the core of many of today's most popular consumer electronics. The collaboration between Cadence and TowerJazz takes aim at accelerating design implementation while reducing risk and lowering overall development costs. The foundry's Reference Design Flow 2.0 delivers both advanced mixed-signal methodology based on OpenAccess and SKILL-based process design kits (PDKs) to enable silicon success and faster time to market for customers.

"With this qualification for TowerJazz Reference Design Flow 2.0, our customers can move forward confidently, knowing that they have the tools at their disposal to effectively tackle high-performance RF, power management, and mixed-signal design challenges," said Qi Wang, technical marketing group director, solutions marketing at Cadence. "As a result of close collaboration for many years, Cadence and TowerJazz are able to help their mutual customers achieve the significant productivity gains possible by deploying the latest Cadence technologies in the context of the new TowerJazz reference design flow."

The Cadence mixed-signal solution offers comprehensive verification technologies for mixed-signal designs and native interoperability across the Encounter unified digital and Virtuoso unified custom/analog flows for advanced analog and digital design, verification, and implementation. Driven by unified design intent with constraints, the Cadence mixed-signal solution intrinsically ensures design consistency at every step throughout the flow.

"Mixed-signal designs are increasingly complex, and the traditional approach of creating analog and digital logic separately within a mixed-signal design is inefficient, causes interruptions and can lead to costly iterations," said Robert Milkovits, director of customer design support and an architect for TowerJazz PDKs and electronic design automation (EDA) tool flows. "Cadence provides a powerful and interoperable digital and analog co-design environment for mixed-signal designs, from design capture to verification, physical implementation, full-chip level integration, extraction and signoff. Together with our TowerJazz reference design flow, we are providing mutual customers with a more cost-effective solution for a quick and accurate design cycle and fast time to market."