11 November 2008

ARM First SOI Physical IP Library For IBM 45nm SOI Foundry

ARM has opened the industry’s first Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) physical IP library for IBM’s 45nm SOI foundry.

The SOI physical IP library includes standard cell, memory and I/O libraries for IBM’s new fully enabled 45nm SOI foundry.

As lower power levels and increased system-on-chip (SoC) performance become more difficult to achieve with a traditional bulk CMOS process, SOI technology enables up to 30 percent better performance and 40 percent power savings at existing process nodes. The ARM SOI library of physical IP is the only design platform of its kind in the industry and promises to significantly ease implementation of SOI technology and bring the benefits of this emerging process to a much wider range of semiconductor companies. 

“The delivery of our physical IP libraries in support of the industry’s very first fully enabled SOI foundry is a testament to ARM’s heritage of collaboration to remain at the forefront of technical innovation in the semiconductor industry. Our strong partnerships with industry leaders like IBM and Soitec continue to serve as the cornerstone of our business model and we look forward to working in tandem with them and others to ensure the semiconductor industry can reach new milestones in the battle for more power efficient products,” explained Tom Lantzsch, vice president of marketing for the ARM physical IP division.

“As semiconductor vendors continue in the race toward higher speeds and lower operating power, an alternative to traditional bulk CMOS technology is critical to the continued evolution of the industry,” said Joanne Itow, managing director, Semico Research Corp. “To date, two major barriers have inhibited the broad adoption of SOI as this alternative – foundry capacity and IP library availability. With today’s announcements, ARM and IBM have together taken the first step toward breaking down these barriers and making SOI a viable alternative for many more applications in networking, storage, communication and consumer applications.”

“Two years ago, Soitec and ARM announced a joint agreement supporting the development of SOI libraries for the fabless and foundry arenas, promising designers a solution to accelerate SOI adoption and design,” explained André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, president and CEO, Soitec. “Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in delivering our promise of reducing the barriers to entry by developing the design infrastructure critical to the fabless and foundry communities.”

The ARM SOI physical IP library is supported by standard synthesis and place and route implementation flows which enable customers to quickly implement products without changing design methodologies or training of employees. EDA views for Synopsys, Cadence and Magma tools are supported.