Ricoh Tapes Out 90nm Chip Early with Cadence Encounter RTL Compiler; Cadence Patented Global Synthesis Enables Top-Down Approach to Greatly Improve Productivity from Weeks to Days
SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—May 9, 2005—
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN)(Nasdaq:CDN)
today announced that Ricoh Company, Ltd. has successfully taped out a
3-million-gate chip ahead of schedule and with reduced gate count
using the Cadence(R) Encounter(TM) digital IC design platform,
including RTL Compiler synthesis.
Encounter RTL Compiler delivered production-cost savings through
reduced run time and by avoiding extra manual efforts at block-level
integration on an important networking-processor design.
"Ricoh is a diversified office automation equipment and
electronics provider doing advanced IC designs for complex
applications," said Kenji Wakabayashi, general manager, Imaging System
LSI Development Center, Electronic Devices Company, at Ricoh. "The
top-down synthesis approach enabled us to quickly and easily fix our
scripts for the 3-million-gate design within two days, which we had
expected to have taken two weeks. Since time to market is important
for us, Encounter RTL Compiler synthesis will help make us more
competitive."
The technical support and guidance Cadence supplied throughout the
evaluation and design process, combined with Encounter RTL Compiler's
capacity and performance advantages, helped Ricoh complete the design,
meeting design-speed, area, and power goals, well ahead of schedule.
Encounter RTL Compiler's global optimization was also key in Ricoh's
ability to reduce logic-gate count.
Nanometer designs include inherent physical effects that need to
be measured for area, power, speed and test. The metrics of a design's
physical characteristics for performance, area and power with wires
requires what Cadence calls quality of silicon (QoS). With Encounter
RTL Compiler, designers are enabled by unique global-focus synthesis
technologies to achieve high QoS in less time and with less effort.
"This newest successful RTL Compiler tapeout of the Ricoh chip is
yet another proof point of how the Encounter synthesis can efficiently
meet design challenges," said Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu, corporate vice
president at Cadence. "Encounter RTL Compiler is now being
successfully used in production by systems companies throughout the
world to achieve the fastest path to the highest QoS."
During the last four quarters, 75 new customers adopted Encounter
RTL Compiler.
About Cadence
Cadence is the world's largest supplier of electronic-design
technologies and engineering services. Cadence products and services
are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors,
computer systems, networking equipment, telecommunications equipment,
consumer electronics, and other electronics-based products. With
approximately 4,900 employees and 2004 revenues of approximately $1.2
billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research
facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose,
Calif., and trades on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq
under the symbol CDN. More information is available at
www.cadence.com.
Cadence and the Cadence logo are registered trademarks, and
Encounter is a trademark of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact:
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Michael Fournell, 408-428-5135
fournell@cadence.com
