Magma, Artisan Components And TSMC Collaboration Enables Noise-Immune Deep Submicron Designs
19 March 2002SUNNYVALE and CUPERTINO, CALIF., -- March 19, 2002 -- Artisan Components, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARTI) a leading provider of semiconductor intellectual property, Magma Design Automation, Inc., (Nasdaq: LAVA), a provider of chip design solutions, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, announced today the immediate availability of the first in a series of qualified libraries that include enhanced signal integrity (SI) characterization models. Magma's Blast Fusion™ physical design and Blast Noise™ SI methodology, combined with the enhanced Artisan libraries, enables mutual customers to automatically analyze and avoid signal integrity issues in integrated circuit (IC) implementation. This eliminates error-inducing and time-consuming data transfers between independent SI analysis and physical design tools, and increases the noise-immunity of designs, minimizing the time to volume production.
Artisan's SAGE-X™ Library for TSMC's 0.13-micron low-voltage process is the first result of Artisan's and Magma's ongoing collaboration. In addition to completing the qualification of 0.25-, 0.18- and 0.13-micron cell libraries for use with Magma's IC implementation tools, the companies are creating a common data repository for easy access to updates and technical support. Subsequently, Artisan and Magma plan to jointly develop advanced methods of characterizing libraries to address other deep-submicron effects.
A number of mutual customers have already benefited from qualified libraries, implementation tools and technical support provided by Magma and Artisan. Internet Machines, provider of the IMpower™ family of highly integrated network processor ICs, and headquartered in Agoura Hills, Calif., was instrumental in driving this development.
Because it eliminates data transfers between point tools and addresses signal integrity during the flow, the designers at Internet Machines selected Magma's physical design system as the tool of choice in their design flow for implementing 0.13-micron designs. The company is using Blast Fusion and Artisan's libraries developed for TSMC's 0.13-micron high-performance process to complete a 10 Gbps/OC-192c chipset.
"Blast Fusion has been extremely effective at delivering timing closure while addressing crosstalk, noise, electromigration and other problems in a timely manner," said Chris Haywood, vice president of engineering at Internet Machines. "As designs move below 0.13-micron, every aspect of design, from RTL to timing constraints to libraries, will have to take these effects into account. We're very pleased that Artisan and Magma are working together to address these important emerging issues."
"At 0.13-micron, signal integrity can be a significant design challenge," said Dr. Genda Hu, TSMC's vice president of corporate marketing. "We are pleased to be part of Magma's and Artisan's efforts to enable early and accurate signal integrity analysis and correction."
"Magma has significant momentum in the marketplace and Artisan is committed to supporting innovative design automation solutions from Magma," said Mark Templeton, president and chief executive officer of Artisan. "Collaboration to optimize and integrate our libraries with Magma's tools will bring tremendous value to our mutual customers."
"This relationship marks a critical milestone for Magma," said Rajeev Madhavan, chief executive officer of Magma Design Automation. "We are looking forward to creating a solid foundation for our customers to deploy Magma's tools with Artisan's world-class library technology."
About Artisan Components, Inc.
Artisan Components, Inc., (Nasdaq: ARTI) is a world leader in intellectual property (IP) components, providing high-quality solutions for many of the world's leading semiconductor foundries, integrated device manufacturers, ASIC vendors and IC design teams. Artisan's Process-Perfect™ memory generators, standard cell and I/O libraries are optimized to achieve the full-speed, density and low-power potential of each semiconductor process. Each product is verified using the industry's most comprehensive QA and validation procedures and delivered ready to use with a complete set of views and models supporting leading design tools. Artisan's headquarters are at 141 Caspian Court, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1013.
About Magma
Magma software products enable chip designers to reduce the time required to design and produce complex integrated circuits in the communications, computing, consumer electronics, networking and semiconductor industries. Magma provides a single executable for RTL-to-GDSII chip design. The company's products, Blast Fusion™, Blast Chip™, Blast Plan™ and Blast Noise™, utilize Magma's proprietary FixedTiming® methodology and single data model architecture to reduce the timing-closure iterations often required between the logic and physical processes in conventional IC design flows.
Magma maintains headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as well as sales and support facilities in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Durham, N.C.; Laurys Station, Pa.; Austin and Dallas, Texas; Newcastle, Wash.; and in Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.
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Magma and FixedTiming are registered trademarks and Blast Chip, Blast Fusion, Blast Noise and Blast Plan are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. Artisan Components is a registered trademark and Artisan, SAGE-X and Process-Perfect are trademarks of Artisan Components, Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Forward-Looking Statements:
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements about Artisan's future collaboration with Magma regarding library development, and the expected benefits of Artisan's collaboration with Magma, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, whether Magma and Artisan will choose to continue to work together on Magma-qualified Artisan libraries; whether technical problems will impede the development of additional Magma-qualified enhanced Artisan libraries; and market acceptance of the Magma-qualified Artisan libraries. Other risks are detailed in Magma's Prospectus dated November 19, 2001 filed with the SEC and from time to time in Magma's SEC reports, including its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2001. Readers are also referred to the documents filed by Artisan Components, Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the most recent reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Magma and Artisan disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
Artisan Components is a registered trademark and Process-Perfect is a trademark of Artisan Components, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
