Press Release

AT 45th DESIGN AUTOMATION CONFERENCE (DAC) BOOTH #941

Z CIRCUIT AUTOMATION BREAKS NEW GROUND IN CELL LIBRARY CHARACTERIZATION RUNTIME

Flip-flop Characterization in Less Than One Minute

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, June 4, 2008

Z Circuit Automation, Inc., a leader in library development tools, has broken the one minute barrier in cell library characterization. By adding new high-speed technologies to the ZChar characterization system, users can now characterize complex flip-flops in less than one minute, at least a 20X improvement over other characterization systems. In addition, ZChar achieves this performance using existing and trusted spice simulation tools such as Synopsys HSpice, Mentor Eldo, and Cadence Spectre.

"ZChar enabled us to very quickly configure and recharacterize a commercial library to meet our special process requirements," said Thu Nguyen, Director of IC Design at Miradia." In addition to standard cells, ZChar was used to characterize a bi-directional IO pad in which we were able specify our unique input waveform voltage requirements to achieve accurate models."

Library characterization is essential to the success of integrated circuits; however, with the growing complexity in cell models, characterization of a large, digital cell library has increased the number of simulation jobs by 1000x in recent years and users are finding library files sized in gigabytes instead of megabytes. Quick turnaround time has never been more critical for companies that build their own libraries or want to re-characterize existing libraries.

When working with gigabytes of data for a single cell library, users require a system that runs reliably and predictably in a multi-simulation environment. Without correctly characterized libraries, an entire design project and millions of dollars in design and fabrication time may be at risk. At 45 nanometer and below, design teams require more corners and complex models that can take 10 times longer to characterize than previous technologies.

About Z Circuit ZChar

ZChar is a general-purpose library characterization system for standard cells, memories, and other IP. Z Circuit will be demonstrating the new high-speed ZChar technologies at the 45th Design Automation Conference (DAC). Please register for a demo at www.z-circuit.com.

About Z Circuit Automation, Inc.

Z Circuit supplies high-end cell library characterization and validation tools to some of the largest semiconductor design companies in the world. Z Circuit is privately held. For further information on Z Circuit, please visit www.z-circuit.com or call us at (650)559-1714.

Media contact:
Roxanne Reichel
Z Circuit Automation
(650)559-1714
news@z-circuit.com