Cadence and Ambit Establish Multi-Year Technology and Business Relationship

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and Ambit Design Systems, Inc. announced a multi-year business and technology relationship aimed at closing the gap between synthesis and layout in deep sub-micron integrated circuit (IC) design. This non-exclusive agreement, which covers product and design services, establishes Ambit as a Platinum member in the Cadence Connections third-party software program.

The two companies have created a strategic relationship that provides for: 1) joint product development; 2) full access to Ambit software for Cadence's rapidly expanding professional services and outsourcing organizations; and 3) a reseller agreement authorizing Cadence to offer a technology upgrade program to the Ambit BuildGates product for current users of the Cadence Synergy synthesis tool. As part of this agreement, Cadence will make a multi-million dollar purchase of the BuildGates tool over a period of several quarters to support the advanced ASIC synthesis requirements of its more than 1,000 designers within the Cadence Design Factory network.

Integrated Deep Sub-micron Design Flow

With the growing complexity of designing at 0.25u and 0.18u, designers can't afford to spend valuable cycles iterating between synthesis and physical design. Ambit and Cadence engineering organizations will work together to address the acute need for tighter integration between these two domains.

They will jointly develop and pre-qualify seamless, timing-driven flows for deep sub-micron and custom IC design. The flows will integrate the Ambit BuildGates product for advanced synthesis with the Cadence Design Planner environment; Silicon Ensemble DSM place and route system; Pearl timing analyzer; and complete simulation product line (the Verilog-XL, NC-Verilog, Leapfrog VHDL, and Cobra simulators).

Plans include co-development of common data interchange formats between Ambit's BuildGates and Cadence's physical design technologies, as well as a comprehensive suite of standard interfaces such as the general constraint format (GCF), timing library format (TLF), physical design exchange format (PDEF), and standard parasitic exchange format (SPEF). Future development efforts may include links to Cadence's datapath and system-level design tools including behavioral synthesis.

Ambit Design Systems, Inc., the Superior Synthesis Alternative, is a privately held California company that develops synthesis solutions for high-end chip design.

California-based Cadence Design Systems, Inc. provides services and technology for the product development requirements of electronics companies.

NOTE: Cadence, Verilog-XL, NC-Verilog, and Leapfrog VHDL are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. The Cadence logo, Cadence Connections, Silicon Ensemble, Pearl and Cobra are trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. BuildGates is a trademark of Ambit Design Systems, Inc. All others are properties of their holders.