Giantec Semiconductor switches to Cadence technology, gains 30 percent productivity with Virtuoso Flow

SAN JOSE, USA: Cadence Design Systems Inc. announced that Giantec Semiconductor Corp. has adopted the Cadence Virtuoso unified custom/analog (IC6.1) and Encounter unified digital flows for production of its mixed-signal chips.

Giantec recently deployed the Cadence technology to design and tape out a memory product for a low-power micro-controller used in its smart cards, intelligent energy meters and consumer products. The company realized a 30 percent productivity boost in developing its mixed-signal design by using the Cadence Virtuoso unified custom/analog flow.

“The complexity of today’s mixed-signal chips requires a unified approach to design implementation and verification, and Cadence has been working closely with its customers and partners to deliver end-to-end flows for Silicon Realization,” said Qi Wang, group director, Solutions Marketing at Cadence. “We continue to see proof points that this approach is critical for success with complex mixed-signal designs, such as the high-performance memory product from Giantec.”

Giantec’s selection of the Cadence unified Virtuoso and Encounter flows for this high-performance design underscores the unique technology and business advantage that comes from using a holistic and integrated EDA flow to meet critical time-to-market and power/performance targets of complex silicon designs.

“Cadence R&D worked closely with us to address our unique needs, and were able to achieve up to 30 percent productivity improvement by using the Cadence Virtuoso technology,” said Leo Li, deputy general manager of design at Giantec. “Deploying Cadence technologies brought us a more complete solution for our mixed-signal designs and a significantly higher level of productivity.”

In addition, Giantec standardized on production-proven SKILL-based process design kits (PDKs).

The Cadence approach to mixed-signal designs leverages a unified methodology in which early design planning, front-end design, functional verification, physical implementation, and packaging are shared responsibilities between analog and digital teams. This top-down approach can boost productivity of the combined custom/analog and digital engineering team, help management hit aggressive market windows, and increase profitability.