Cadence Custom/Analog Design Migration Flow Accelerates Adoption of TSMC Advanced Process Technologies

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Cadence Design Systems, Inc. announced the expansion of its node-to-node design migration flow based on the Cadence^® Virtuoso^® Studio, which is compatible with all TSMC advanced nodes, including the latest N3E and N2 process technologies. This generative design migration flow was developed by Cadence and TSMC to provide joint customers with a simplified and automated approach to migrating custom and analog IC designs among TSMC’s advanced process technologies. Customers already using the flow have successfully reduced migration time by up to 3X when compared with manual migration.

Virtuoso Studio facilitates the migration of schematic cells, parameters, pins and wiring from one TSMC process node to another. The Virtuoso ADE Suite’s simulation and circuit optimization environment then tunes and optimizes the new schematic to ensure the design achieves all required specifications and measurements. Cadence and TSMC customers can then automatically recognize and extract groups of devices in an existing layout, and apply them to similar groups in the new layout, using Virtuoso Layout Suite’s generative design technology.

This flow allows customers to migrate a wide range of analog designs on TSMC process technologies. TSMC process nodes supported by this flow include:

• N40 to N22
• N22 to N12
• N12 to N6
• N6 to N4
• N5 to N3E
• N4/N5 to N3E
• N3E to N2

“Many TSMC customers are looking to migrate legacy designs to TSMC advanced processes to take full advantage of the higher performance and lower power benefits that TSMC provides,” said Dan Kochpatcharin, head of the Design Infrastructure Management Division at TSMC. “We have worked closely with Cadence to offer our mutual customers the ability to easily migrate their valuable custom IP. These enhanced PDKs and methodologies simplify and accelerate the design migration process and speed time to market.”

“Through the expansion of our collaboration with TSMC on custom/analog process migration, our joint customers benefit from our generative technologies that make custom/analog migration simpler and less time-consuming,” said Tom Beckley, senior vice president and general manager in the Custom IC & PCB Group at Cadence. “Using our new Virtuoso Studio, we’ve developed an advanced migration flow to help our mutual customers be more productive and meet stringent time-to-market goals.”

Cadence Virtuoso Studio supports the Cadence Intelligent System Design^™ strategy, enabling system-on-chip (SoC) design excellence.