TSMC qualifies Magma FineSim SPICE

SAN JOSE, USA: Magma Design Automation Inc. announced that TSMC qualified the accuracy and performance of Magma's FineSim SPICE for designs targeting TSMC's 65- and 40-nanometer (nm) processes.

Magma is one of the first EDA companies to participate in the TSMC SPICE Tool Qualification Program. FineSim SPICE supports the program's interoperable SPICE Design Kit (iSDK) and Magma has adopted the TSMC Model Interface (TMI). Through early tool qualification and support of this program, Magma provides greater accuracy and higher performance SPICE simulation.

"Magma's new technology correlates with our 65- and 40-nm processes," said S. T. Juang, senior director of Design Infrastructure Marketing, TSMC. "FineSim SPICE met our requirements for accuracy and performance." TSMC has prepared a qualification report on FineSim SPICE.

"By completing TSMC's rigorous qualification process, Magma ensures that designers will be able to leverage FineSim SPICE and its unique Native Parallel Technology(tm) to shorten simulation run time," said Suk Lee, general manager of Magma's Custom Design Business Unit. "Now designers can have increased confidence in their ability to verify their most challenging analog designs."

FineSim SPICE: Fast and accurate

The FineSim SPICE is a SPICE-level simulation analysis tool that incorporates transistor-level simulation analysis capabilities for mixed digital and analog designs. It is a full SPICE simulation engine with distributed processing that enables customers to simulate large-scale mixed-signal system chips at the transistor level.

By providing increased speed and capacity while maintaining full SPICE accuracy, FineSim SPICE enables designers to simulate advanced circuits -- such as PLLs, ADCs (analog-to-digital converters), DACs (digital-to-analog converters) and gigahertz SERDES (SERializer/DESerializer) - that they previously would not even attempt using slower traditional SPICE simulators.