SANTA CLARA, Calif. - May 24, 2005 - Sequence Design today announced that after comparison with several competing EDA products, its CoolTime on-chip dynamic voltage drop analysis tool was selected by NEC Electronics Corporation. CoolTime is the industry's leading cell-based electrical integrity solution for concurrent analysis of voltage drop, power, electromigration (EM), timing and signal integrity (SI) for nanometer SoC designs. Eliminating the need for multiple point tools and iterations, CoolTime renders accurate and convergent analysis of interdependent electrical effects for multi-million gate designs.

"CoolTime is the first tool which passed our acceptance criteria for on-chip dynamic voltage-drop analysis. When measuring the accuracy of CoolTime against our golden transistor-level tool, we were able to achieve within 5 percent accuracy on dynamic voltage waveforms down to an instance-by-instance level for most of the real test cases," said Hiroshi Sakuma, general manager, Design Engineering Division, NEC Electronics. "We selected CoolTime to develop advanced SoC design methodologies because of the superiority of Sequence's technology and support."

CoolTime performs fast transient current analysis to incorporate dynamic effects resulting from RLC parasitics of power-grid, package, decoupling capacitors and non-switching cells. For designs under 130nm, these dynamic effects can contribute to as much as 30 percent to 50 percent of the total voltage drop. CoolTime can handle a full-chip dynamic analysis overnight, and delivers SPICE-like accuracy on dynamic voltage drop, with 5 percent correlation on peak voltage drop and ground bounce, half-width of voltage waveform, and time of peak.

"NEC Electronics' decision validates our vision of CoolTime as a key component of nextgeneration, power-aware SoC design flows," according to Sequence president and CEO Vic Kulkarni. "The NEC Electronics team is among the world's best in nanometer SoC design and power management, and we are delighted that after carefully evaluating competing solutions, they selected the best-in-class solution."

CoolTime Highlights

• Simulation-based and vectorless analysis modes for voltage drop
• Highest accuracy, highest capacity and performance SoC tool for dynamic voltage drop analysis
• Accurate RLC model includes power grid, decap, package, signal and intrinsic cell parasitics
• High-speed embedded extractor uses silicon-proven Columbus-NTX™ technology
• Cell characterization for transient current waveforms, Accuwave™
• Accurate memory and macro current modeling
• Power grid IR-drop and EM analysis
• Event-based timing and SI analysis for crosstalk and voltage drop effects
• Pre-route analysis and post-route verification
• Hierarchical analysis for SoC designs
• Cell characterization for voltage-aware timing and SI modeling
• Easy-to-use graphical interface and detailed reports
• Shared platform with PhysicalStudio optimization
• Correlated with silicon and industry standard circuit simulators
• Available on 32-bit and 64-bit Solaris and Linux (Opteron) platforms
• For more information and data sheet, click here.

Sequence at DAC 2005

In its booth #301 at DAC 2005, Sequence will showcase its products in a system-level to signoff flow wherein power analysis and optimization are seamlessly integrated at each stage in the user's existing design and implementation flow. To be added to the list for future DAC announcements from Sequence, interested parties may contact: cpuri@sequencedesign.com.

About Sequence

Sequence Design, Inc. enables system-on-chip designers to bring higher-performance and power-aware nanometer integrated circuits quickly to fabrication. Sequence's power and signal integrity software give its more than 125 customers the competitive advantage necessary to excel in aggressive technology markets, despite demanding complexity and time-to-market issues of nanometer design.

Sequence has worldwide development and field service operations. The company was recently named by Reed Electronics as one of the top 10 companies to watch in the electronics industry. Sequence is privately held. Sequence is a member of Cadence Design Systems' Connections (™) and Mentor Graphics' Open Door(™) partnership programs. Additional information is available at sequencedesign.com.