Fairchild Selects SiliconSmart CR from Silicon Metrics; Semiconductor Leader Selects Characterization and Modeling Software

Business Wire, August 12, 2002

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 12, 2002

Silicon Metrics today announced that Fairchild Semiconductor International (NYSE:FCS), has selected SiliconSmart CR for characterization and modeling of standard cell libraries, internal and third-party, used by the Fairchild design organizations.

Fairchild is the industry's leading supplier of high performance power products for multiple end markets in computing, communications, consumer, industrial, and automotive applications. Fairchild becomes the latest in a string of major integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) to adopt Silicon Metrics technology this year.

Fairchild's products are used in a wide variety of applications and operating environments. Whether the products are used in a desktop environment, under the hood of a car, or in electronic handheld applications, designers need to be confident they can meet their performance and power objectives. To ensure they meet these goals, Fairchild designers must have accurate libraries, quickly characterized for their specific operating point and foundry process. SiliconSmart CR provides Fairchild with an easy-to-use and automated system that quickly and consistently delivers accurate timing and power models.

Fairchild's Analog and Mixed Signal designs are constantly increasing in complexity and require the high degree of accuracy necessary for SPICE libraries. SiliconSmart CR allows Fairchild to create more complex digital libraries for their specific operating points quickly and accurately which can be also be shared with other design facilities, either in house or third party, around the world.

Fairchild decided to bring the library development and migration process in-house. By using technology from Silicon Metrics, Prolific Inc. and Cadence Design Systems, Fairchild quickly and easily designed and implemented the library development and retargeting process to support their new design requirements.

"We evaluated many characterization solutions, and SiliconSmart CR provided a tool that quickly produces high-quality results, with modern model formats like ALF and TLF 4.3 that our design teams demand," said Dr. Timwah Luk, director of Automation Development, Worldwide Technology for Fairchild Semiconductor.

"Traditional design and manufacturing companies such as Fairchild, whose products are increasingly more complex in design, are now able to proliferate accurate libraries into the hands of individual design teams around the world," said Callan Carpenter, president and CEO of Silicon Metrics. "Putting characterization in the hands of the individual design teams requires products that are easy to use, provide rapid throughput and produce accurate, high-quality models. SiliconSmart CR meets those requirements."

For more information, call 888/828-3736, or visit Silicon Metrics online at http://www.siliconmetrics.com.