ANSYS, Inc., and Intel Corporation announced the availability of a production-proven reference flow for power, EM and reliability sign-off using ANSYS simulation solutions for Intel’s 14nm Tri-Gate process, showcasing it at last week’s Design Automation Conference. This technology allows customers of Intel Custom Foundry to design the next-generation mobile and cloud enterprise products that deliver the highest performance while meeting stringent product power targets.

ANSYS and Intel Custom Foundry teams developed reference flows around ANSYS RedHawk for system on chip power and electromigration (EM) sign-off, ANSYS Totem for custom intellectual property power and EM integrity and ANSYS PathFinder for full-chip ESD validation. This collaboration extends the work on the Intel Custom Foundry 22nm process design platform to the 14nm platform.

Intel’s 14nm process technology is the world’s most advanced process technology and is the second generation of Tri-Gate process technology. These Tri-Gate transistors enable chips to operate at lower voltage with lower leakage, providing an unprecedented combination of improved performance and energy efficiency compared to previous state-of-the-art transistors. The capabilities give chip designers the flexibility to choose transistors targeted for low power or high performance, depending on the application. Collaboration with ANSYS on the Intel Custom Foundry 14nm and 22nm design platforms allows designers to take advantage of Intel’s process technologies.

“As designers continue to push the technology envelope, having access to a robust and foundry-certified power EM and reliability sign-off flow becomes critical,” said Aveek Sarkar, vice president of product engineering and support at Apache Design, a subsidiary of ANSYS. “Our long-standing relationship with Intel Custom Foundry has allowed us to provide optimized tools and methodologies for customers to adopt the latest technologies with greater confidence.”

“A close collaboration between Intel Custom Foundry and ANSYS on reliability verification reference flow for 22nm and 14nm enables our customers to efficiently deliver more robust and reliable designs for next-generation electronic products,” said Venkat Immaneni, senior director, Foundry Design Kit Enablement, Intel Custom Foundry. “This platform enables our customers to use an industry-leading power, EM and reliability sign-off solution on our design platforms.”