June 1, 2007 – Magma Design Automation has qualified new technologies based on 90nm and 65nm process technologies from Taiwan foundry UMC, including a 65nm-validated RTL-to-GDSII reference flow and statistical static timing analysis (SSTA) methodology.

UMC’s validation of Magma’s flow for its 65nm process, which included “rigorous QoR testing on actual designs,” notes Magma, adds to flows for its 90, 130, and 180nm processes. “We worked closely with Magma during the development of this 65nm reference flow to ensure that our process technology and their software address many of the requirements that designers are facing at 65nm,” stated Ken Liou, director of UMC’s IP and design support division.

The SSTA methodology, based on Magma’s Quartz SSTA and tuned to UMC’s 90nm and 65nm processes, supplements traditional signoff methods with statistical static timing analysis, using random variables to produce a statistical distribution instead of best- and worst-case models, the company says. The SSTA works with Magma’s IC implementation system to fix timing problems resulting from variation.

Magma explains that traditional STA approaches don’t scale to 65nm because they are overly conservative and inaccurate, cannot account for process and metal variations, and thus result in lower-quality results in terms of timing, area, and power, as well as longer and more costly design cycles.