CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

8 April 2008

Implementation Investments

Summit Microelectronics Selects Analog FastSPICE™ for Full-Circuit Performance Verification of Programmable Power Management ICs

Berkeley Design Automation Inc., provider of Precision Circuit Analysis™ technology for advanced analog and RF integrated circuits (ICs), announced that Summit Microelectronics, Inc., a world leader in programmable power management ICs, has selected the company's Analog FastSPICE™ circuit simulator for full-circuit performance simulation and complex-block characterization of its precision power management ICs.

"Getting it right first time, on time is important for us. Verifying our digitally programmable, highly integrated precision power management ICs requires transistor-level simulation with true SPICE accuracy," said Sridhar Kotikalapoodi, Vice President of Design at Summit Microelectronics. "Traditional SPICE simulators were too slow and did not have sufficient capacity. Digital fastSPICE simulators were difficult to set up and were not accurate enough. Analog FastSPICE fits right into our flow and simulates our complex switching DC-DC converters up to 14x faster than traditional SPICE simulator while producing identical waveforms. With Analog FastSPICE we are able to achieve full-circuit performance verification including power-up sequences with true SPICE accuracy."

Berkeley Design Automation tools include Analog FastSPICE™ circuit simulation, RF FastSPICE™ periodic analyzer, and PLL Noise Analyzer™. The company guarantees identical waveforms to the leading "golden" SPICE simulators down to noise floor (typically 0.1% or less) while delivering 5x-10x higher performance and 5x-10x higher capacity. It achieves this by using advanced algorithms and numerical analysis techniques to rapidly solve the full-circuit matrix and the original device equations without any shortcuts that could compromise accuracy.

Design teams from top-10 semiconductor companies to leading startups use Berkeley Design Automation tools to solve big analog/RF verification problems. Typical applications include characterizing complex blocks (e.g., PLLs, ADCs, DC:DC converters, PHYs, Tx/Rx chains) and running performance simulation of full circuits (e.g., wireless transceivers, wireline transceivers, high-speed I/O macros, memories, microcontrollers, data converters, and power converters).

"We are delighted that Summit Microelectronics has chosen Analog FastSPICE for the verification of their power management ICs," said Ravi Subramanian, president and CEO of Berkeley Design Automation. "Delivering high-precision programmable single chip power management solutions for the leading consumer electronics applications is a tremendous challenge involving advanced precision digital and analog techniques. Summit's selection of Analog FastSPICE further validates the strong competitive advantage our Precision Circuit Analysis technology provides to leading-edge designers of complex analog and mixed-signal devices."

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