At today’s inaugural Global Technology Conference, GLOBALFOUNDRIES
showcased the industry’s first open-access 28nm Analog/Mixed-Signal
(AMS) production design flow development kit. The company is making the
flow available to customers as a platform to build upon proven foundry
methodologies and enable successful design. GLOBALFOUNDRIES has teamed
with Cadence
Design Systems to deliver this AMS production design flow.
“Collaboration and openness have never been more essential to enabling
innovation at advanced technology nodes,” said Richard Trihy, director
of design methodology at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “We are working closely with
our ecosystem partners to deliver optimized design solutions. Customers
can build on the leading-edge 28nm production design flow platform we’ve
developed with Cadence to differentiate their designs and product
offerings.”
The AMS flow is designed to emphasize the advanced features of
GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 28nm
Gate First High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) technology. The flow includes
silicon-driven guidelines and recommendations for better
manufacturability. Customers will have access to IP, libraries,
reference kits and foundry collateral, which will allow them to recreate
the design and flow to meet their individual design specifications.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES also will be the first in the industry to support a flow
with DRC+,
GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ silicon-validated solution that goes beyond standard
Design Rule Checking (DRC) and uses two-dimensional shape-based
pattern-matching to enable a 100-fold speed improvement in identifying
complex manufacturing issues without sacrificing accuracy.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES has joined with Cadence to deliver the major elements of
the AMS production design flow in Q3, 2010, with all of the flow steps
supported by the GLOBALFOUNDRIES PDK. The reference flow contains PCells
that enable critical advanced features within Cadence Virtuoso custom
design tools. The complete production-level AMS flow is expected to be
released to customers in Q4 2010, with silicon validation scheduled for
early 2011.
“Cadence continues to be the ecosystem partner of choice for aggressive
development projects that have a very tangible and positive productivity
impact for companies working at advanced nodes,” said David Desharnais,
product management group director at Cadence. “Our collaboration with
GLOBALFOUNDRIES on this 28nm fully-integrated, open-access AMS
production flow provides the industry with a deterministic path to
Silicon Realization, one of the key foundational components of the
EDA360 vision.”
The flow encompasses analog block design and mixed signal design,
demonstrating mixed analog and digital design with GLOBALFOUNDRIES PDKs
and partner standard cell libraries. All aspects of the design are
covered in the reference flow including managing parasitic concerns,
rapid circuit layout prototyping, analog layout guidelines and routing,
simulation (e.g., choice of corners, Monte Carlo), inductor synthesis,
metal fill and EM/IR analysis.
The design flow is also augmented with whitepapers and collateral on
common challenges and GLOBALFOUNDRIES-recommended solutions. In
addition, the flow incorporates top-level physical signoff steps for
manufacturing using GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm requirements for DRC,
lithography simulation and CMP.
ABOUT GTC 2010
GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ inaugural Global Technology Conference features
keynotes from industry leaders and presentations from senior members of
the GLOBALFOUNDRIES management and technical teams, with a special
emphasis on how the company achieves time-to-volume leadership by
leveraging global collaboration with customers and partners. GTC 2010
begins Wednesday, September 1 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in
the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, kicking off a series of GTC
2010 “Road Show” events to be held at strategic international venues
including China, Taiwan, Japan and Europe. For more information on GTC
2010, visit: http://www.globalfoundries.com/gtc2010/.
ABOUT GLOBALFOUNDRIES
GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the world’s first full-service semiconductor foundry
with a truly global manufacturing and technology footprint. Launched in
March 2009 through a partnership between AMD [NYSE: AMD] and the
Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), GLOBALFOUNDRIES provides
a unique combination of advanced technology, manufacturing excellence
and global operations. With the integration of Chartered in January
2010, GLOBALFOUNDRIES significantly expanded its capacity and ability to
provide best-in-class foundry services from mainstream to the leading
edge. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is headquartered in Silicon Valley with
manufacturing operations in Singapore, Germany, and a new leading-edge
fab under construction in Saratoga County, New York. These sites are
supported by a global network of R&D, design enablement, and customer
support in Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, Germany,
and the United Kingdom.
For more information on GLOBALFOUNDRIES, visit http://www.globalfoundries.com.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are made
pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and include, without limitation,
statements regarding the company's current expectations, assumptions,
assessments, anticipations, objectives, plans, hopes, beliefs,
intentions or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking
statements therefore are subject to risks and uncertainties which could
cause actual results to differ materially. Some factors which contribute
to these risks and uncertainties include the economic conditions both in
the United States and around the world; the difficulties in developing
new customers; the demand and supply outlook in the overall
semiconductor / foundry industry; the sourcing strategy of potential
customer base; competitor actions; the success of company technology
alliances; construction progress on additional manufacturing facilities
as well as associated governmental processes; the availability of
components and equipment; labor and employment issues at manufacturing
facilities; the progression of advances in technology and processes; and
unforeseen events. The company has no duty to update any forward-looking
statements in this release based on new information or events.
