Chips: Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Magma Design Automation Sign Multi-Year, Multi-License Deal for Blast Fusion Physical Design Software - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, May 3, 1999

Magma Design Automation, creators of next-generation physical design solutions, Wednesday announced that Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun) has signed a multi-year, multi-license deal for the Blast Fusion and Blast Speed place-and-route software.

Magma introduced Blast Fusion Wednesday as the only physical design solution that can achieve timing sign-off early in the physical design process, deliver the best timing possible for a given netlist and process technology, and guarantee post-layout timing that meets or exceeds the predicted timing sign-off number. Sun will incorporate Blast Fusion and Blast Speed in design flows for its application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and high performance microprocessors.

To prove the effectiveness of Blast Fusion in addressing the unique design challenges of each class of design, Magma and Sun cooperated in benchmark testing. The benchmarks focused on several criteria: turnaround time, compatibility with existing design flows, timing performance, and signal integrity.

"We gave Magma a test case design early in their beta test process. We were interested in the timing improvements Blast Fusion could deliver but, because of the high speed requirements of our microprocessors, we were particularly concerned with improving signal integrity," said Ron Melanson, Sr. Director of Sun's SPARC Engineering Group. "Initial results look promising and the correct-by-construction methodology utilizing simultaneous optimizations is the right approach for this class of designs."

"Tight integration between the logical and physical domains is key to reducing turnaround time and increasing the performance of deep submicron designs. Magma's solution with its built-in optimization and analysis engines and unified data model provides the most integrated solution I've seen to date," said Nancy Nettleton, Manager of ASIC Technology in Computer Systems, a Division of Sun. "It only took Magma a couple of weeks to get us benchmark timing results on a design that normally requires significantly more layout time. Not only was the turnaround time better, both timing and gate count were significantly lower."

MPG MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE Based on the strength of the FixedTiming technology and numerous test case results that demonstrate that Blast Fusion consistently delivers layouts that meet or exceed the initial timing sign-off number, Magma is able to extend the Magma Performance Guarantee (MPG) program to all of its licensees.

"Magma is the only EDA company putting their revenue on the line," said Rajeev Madhavan, president and CEO of Magma Design Automation. "We can offer the MPG program because we developed the technology from the ground up and have performed many benchmarks. We have complete confidence in Blast Fusion's ability to establish the best timing early on and to deliver the optimized layout that meets that timing."

BLAST FUSION Blast Fusion is the industry's only place-and-route system based on the patent-pending FixedTiming methodology and backed up by Magma's MPG program. It includes a full complement of physical design engines for placement and routing and is the only system that integrates a full-function static timing analyzer, parasitic extractor and formal verifier directly into the core of the system. All of Blast Fusion's physical design and optimization engines and analysis tools operate on a single, memory-resident, unified data model. This data model allows the tools to communicate in real time and work concurrently rather than serially as existing solutions do. This provides seamless automatic interaction between the analysis tools and physical design engines and eliminates the need for the user to run time-consuming post-processing analysis programs.

The Blast Fusion product line is available now in the following configurations: Blast Fusion (all components); Blast Speed (performs front-end timing and logic optimization and generates the MPG timing sign-off number); and Blast Builder (performs back-end physical layout). An additional product, Blast Wrap, is offered for library compilation. All products are available for Sun Solaris and Windows NT platforms. List pricing is based on a three-year, time-based license that includes annual maintenance. Magma will also offer other licensing models.

The Magma system utilizes industry standard formats for logical and physical library information. To ensure compatibility with existing design environments, Magma is a partner in the following programs: Cadence Design Systems' Connections, Mentor Graphics' Open Door, and Synopsys' inSync and tap-IN. In addition, Magma has licensed DCL and ALF from Si2 and is working with key ASIC vendors and early customers to qualify libraries.

MAGMA DESIGN AUTOMATION Founded in April 1997, Magma Design Automation designs, manufactures and markets physical design tools based on Magma's patent-pending FixedTiming methodology. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., the company maintains sales and support offices in Silicon Valley, Austin, Boston, Japan (SC Hightech) and the United Kingdom. Corporate headquarters are in Cupertino, CA. FMI: www.magma-da.com.