CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
18 April 2005
Implementation Investments
inSilica Implements Its Largest IC Design Relying on Magma's IC Design Solutions
Magma® Design Automation Inc. and inSilica, a supplier of high-performance System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions, announced that inSilica has completed its largest-ever integrated circuit (IC) design by incorporating Magma's RTL-to-GDSII flow in inSilica's IC design methodology. With more than 15 million gates and clock speed greater than 500 MHz, this new 130-nanometer design demonstrates the power of Magma's efficient RTL-to-GDSII integrated design suite for successful implementation of complex IC designs. This high-performance design was produced using Magma's Blast CreateT, Blast PlanT, Blast Fusion®, and Blast Noise® products. By using Magma's integrated RTL-to-GDSII flow in inSilica's highly automated but customizable design environment, faster time to silicon was achieved.
Anant Agrawal, recently elevated to vice chairman from president and CEO of inSilica, said, "For us and our customers, 'analyze and iterate' is not an option. We conservatively estimate that by incorporating Magma's design suite into our IC development process, inSilica can provide our customers with advanced-process, very high-performing ICs, and with two to four times faster time to market than traditional 'point-tool' EDA approaches. We've been extremely pleased with the design environment that Magma provides, as it allows inSilica to deliver to our customers world-class, correct-by-construction SoCs in record time."
"The collaboration between Magma and inSilica enables IC designers who want to outsource their designs to achieve the desired performance, size and power results, while significantly reducing time to silicon," said Rajeev Madhavan, chairman and CEO of Magma. "We are seeing increased outsourcing of IC design in our industry because this allows engineers to focus additional time and effort on system-level development and integration. By incorporating Magma's integrated design flow into its design methodology and both companies' commitment to a correct by construction IC design approach, inSilica can offer faster time to silicon, even for very complex chip designs."
inSilica's Magma-based, easy-to-use integrated flow environment has more quickly and reliably enabled inSilica to offer customers 130- and 90-nanometer process technologies, while gearing up for 65-nanometer and smaller geometries. inSilica's approach, while optimized, is technology independent and ensures silicon success for deep-submicron processes. This 15-million-plus-gate design running at more than 500 MHz with four levels of hierarchy is being manufactured on TSMC's 130-nanometer process, in a flip-chip package.
"We have chosen to build our SoC physical design environment using Magma's integrated flow," said Mustafiz Choudhury, inSilica's Chief Development Officer. "Our correct-by-construction flow incorporating Magma's tool suite was key to the development of inSilica's largest, most-complex IC design so far. The built-in intelligence and hooks in Magma's software, coupled with Magma's excellent support, created a win-win for inSilica and our customer."
"We are very pleased that companies on the leading edge of IC design, such as inSilica, are turning to Magma for a complete RTL-to-GDSII implementation solution," said Kam Kittrell, general manager of Magma's Logic Design Business Unit. "That inSilica has chosen to rely on Magma to develop their most-complex IC to date, illustrates the flexibility, reliability and sophistication of Magma's approach for handling the challenges inherent in next-generation IC design."
Venture-backed inSilica Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company which delivers customer-specific Systems-on-Chip (SoCs). inSilica maintains responsibility for all IP procurement, physical design, fabrication and back-end assembly and test operations, delivering to its customers fully tested, packaged devices. inSilica advises its customers on the lowest risk and least cost path while ensuring the resulting design meets customers' performance objectives. The company's engineering team possesses extensive design experience in advanced process technologies in digital, analog/mixed signal and RF designs. inSilica is a global company with operations in Santa Clara, Calif., San Diego, Calif., as well as Bangalore, India. For more information visit http://www.insilica.com .
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