Qualcomm, Samsung Name New Si2 Board Members

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AUSTIN, Texas—Qualcomm Incorporated and Samsung Electronics have named two executives to join the Silicon Integration Initiative board of directors.  Si2 is a global research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools.

Udi Landen is Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.  In his current role, Landen provides technical, management and business leadership for engineering teams at various international sites that focus on mobile and computing design enablement and CAD methodology automation roadmaps.  Prior to joining Qualcomm in 2013, Landen held executive and leadership roles at Altera Corp., Mercury Interactive and Cadence Design Systems.  He is a graduate of the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

 

Seungbum Ko is vice president of the Samsung Electronics Design Technology Team.  He is responsible for all memory design methodology activities for the Samsung memory division, and also manages the relationships between memory division and EDA vendors. A 21-year veteran at Samsung, Ko’s expertise includes development of SDRAM, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDD2, LPDDR3 and LPDDR4 devices. His internal honors include the Proud Samsung Award, the Jang Young-sil Award, and the Memory Award.

 

Landen and Ko were approved by a vote of the Si2 board, which represents leading semiconductor manufacturers and foundries, fabless companies, and EDA software providers.

Qualcomm and Samsung are active members of the Si2 OpenAccess and Compact Model Coalitions. OpenAccess is a standard application programming interface and reference source code for the design database used by all major chip design software suppliers. It provides end-user chip designers with inter-tool interoperability. Si2 standard, compact SPICE simulation models selected and supported by the Compact Model Coalition are used by every major circuit simulator in the semiconductor industry.

About Si2

Founded in 1988, Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. Its activities include support of OpenAccess, the world’s most widely used standard API and reference database for integrated circuit design. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of the The National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws.

 

Rahul Goyal of Intel Elected Board Chair of Silicon Integration Initiative

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AUSTIN, Texas — Rahul Goyal of Intel has been elected to a one-year term as board chair of Silicon Integration Initiative, a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. The election was held during Si2’s board meeting at the recent Design Automation Conference.

A member of the Si2 board since 2003, Goyal is vice president, Technology and Manufacturing Group and director, Research and Development Strategic Enabling for Intel. He has global responsibility for strategic sourcing, supply chain strategy, industry relations, ecosystem development, strategic collaborations, data analytics, and capacity management related to product development across Intel’s broad product portfolio. This includes software, system and semiconductor intellectual property, product development outsourcing services, electronic measurement solutions, Electronic Design Automation software, prototyping and verification products used in all aspects of product design, validation and technology development.

Goyal joined Intel in 1989 and has held various technical and management positions in software engineering and technology development. His previous roles there include engineering director in the Design and Technology Solutions Group, director of the integrated silicon technology roadmap development in the Microprocessor Products Group, and senior engineering manager of mask operations. Goyal holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India, and a master’s degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University in New York.

About Si2

Founded in 1988, Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of the The National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws. The Si2 international membership includes semiconductor foundries, fabless manufacturers, and EDA companies.

Si2 Elects Board Members for 2018-19

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Si2 Elects Board Members for 2018-19

For Immediate Release

AUSTIN, Texas–Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2), a global research and development joint venture focused on developing and maintaining design software tool interoperability standards, announced today the election of the 2018-19 board of directors. Board members will be introduced at the Si2 Member Meeting and Reception during the Design Automation Conference (DAC), June 25, 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m., Marriott Marquis Hotel, Sierra Room B.

Joining the Si2 Board for the first time is:

  • Jose Corleto, vice president, Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCAM)

Re-elected board members are:

  • David DeMaria, vice president, Corporate Marketing, Synopsys
  • Keith Green, distinguished member of the technical staff, Analog Technology Development, Texas Instruments
  • Rahul Goyal, vice president, Technology and Manufacturing Group and director, Research and Development Strategic Enabling, Intel Corp.
  • Jong-Bae Lee, vice president,  Design Technology Team, Samsung Electronics
  • Leon Stok, vice president,  Electronic Design Automation Technologies, IBM
  • Humair Mandavia, Chief Strategy Officer, Zuken, Inc.
  • Stanley Krolikoski, fellow, Strategic Alliances, Cadence Design Systems
  • Richard Trihy, Senior Director, Design Enablement, GLOBALFOUNDRIES
  • Mick Tegethoff, director of Product Marketing for Analog/Mixed-Signal/RF IC Verification Solutions, Mentor, a Siemens Business

Details on the Si2 Member Meeting and Reception and other Si2 DAC activities are available at http://www.si2.org/dac-2018/

Founded in 1988, Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of the The National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws. The Si2 international membership includes semiconductor foundries, fabless manufacturers, and EDA companies.

Contact:

Silicon Integration Initiative
Terry Berke
512-917-1358
tberke@si2.org

Empyrean Software, Qorvo Join Si2 Compact Model Coalition

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Empyrean Software, Qorvo Join Si2 Compact Model Coalition

 

For Immediate Release

 

AUSTIN, Texas—Empyrean Software and Qorvo have joined the Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2) Compact Model Coalition (CMC), a collaborative group that funds the standardization of cost-saving SPICE models for integrated circuit designs.

They join 30 other companies that increasingly rely on the use of industry-standard SPICE models (Simulation Program with Integration Circuit Emphasis) to simulate the performance of new and enhanced chip designs prior to manufacturing. As a research and development joint venture focused on IC design tool operability standards, Si2 provides a legally protected environment for its members to share resources for funding SPICE model standardization.

“SPICE device models are equations that express transistor function. These fundamental building blocks provide IC designers with the ability to simulate and validate design function and performance before entering the capital-intensive phase of manufacturing,“ said John Ellis, Si2 president and CEO. “To reduce R&D costs and increase simulation accuracy, the semiconductor industry has turned to the CMC to pool resources and fund the standardization of best-of breed models.

“Once the standard models are proven and accepted by CMC, they are incorporated into design tools providing cross-correlation between simulators and widely used by the semiconductor industry. The standard models have been developed, and are refined and maintained, under direction and funding by the CMC, by leading universities and national labs,” Ellis explained.

Steve Yang, CEO of Empyrean Software, said “As designs move to advanced processes, the simulation models provided by CMC are vitally important for our tools to provide accurate results and validate designs before they are manufactured.  As the largest China EDA software supplier, Empyrean’s EDA tools cover complete custom AMS design flow: schematic entry, layout editing, circuit simulation, DRC/LVS, and RC extraction.”

For more information about the CMC visit http://www.si2.org/cmc/.

 

About the Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2)

Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for IC design tools. Its primary products include OpenAccess, the world’s most widely used, open reference database for IC design, with a supporting standard APA. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws.

 

Media Contact:

Terry Berke
512-917-1358
tberke@si2.org

Have Ideas on Improving the IC Design Ecosystem?

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Si2 is seeking industry input on an international effort to identify and address ways to streamline and improve the IC design ecosystem. The finished product will be a DAC 2018 white paper whose contents will present an industry consensus on specific ways the industry can manage the rising costs of more complex designs and smaller geometries.

We’re looking for comments and suggestions on specific design concerns to include in an industry survey whose results will provide data for the white paper. IC designers and engineers can submit survey questions for consideration at https://lnkd.in/eJGgVQR.

If you have questions about the survey or white paper contact Ted Paone, tedp@si2.org.

Members Invited to Si2 OpenAccess Annual Meeting

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The Si2 OpenAccess Coalition will hold its annual meeting on Friday, October 27, 9:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. (PST). Meeting locations are:

  • Synopsys, Mountain View, California
  • Si2, Austin, Texas
  • IBM, Poughkeepsie, New York

Members can also attend via WebEx.

For details and registration visit:  http://www.si2.org/oa-annual-meeting/

System level co-design of chip, package and PCB using native design databases in a unified 3D cockpit

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Author:  James Church

Today’s advanced packaging design requires low layer count and high pin density to satisfy the cost pressures facing the electronics industry. By leveraging the native design formats, rules and technologies of each substrate designers can achieve a cohesive, optimized and properly constrained product.

Combining the OpenAccess IC layout database and Zuken’s own Package/PCB database format into a single hierarchically linked 3D system, enables system level optimization and visualization for a top-down or bottom-up flow that is not achievable in discrete point tools.

This paper was voted “Best Paper” by an audience survey taken after every presentation.

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Challenges and Opportunities in Global Standardization of Compact Models

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DAC 2016

The Si2 Compact Model Coalition (CMC) is a collaborative industry-academia organization for creating standards for SPICE compact models. CMC standards drive innovation across the semiconductor foundry-fabless ecosystem by ensuring that well-vetted compact models and compact model interfaces are consistently implemented in vendor circuit simulators. This panel discusses developing cutting-edge models while simultaneously improving/maintaining legacy models and acting in the presence of a challenging model developer funding climate. Special focus is on models currently in the CMC pipeline including GaN, HEMTs (gallium nitride high-electron mobility transistors) and electrostatic discharge protection devices.

What you will learn

  • Advantages of using industry-wide compact model standards

  • New compact models in development and significant changes to legacy models

  • Challenges and solutions in evolving model language descriptions

  • How the CMC helps individual companies succeed and innovate

  • The status of R&D funding status and its impact on compact model development

Panelists

  • Moderator: John Ellis, President and CEO, Si2

  • Rob Jones, Senior Principal Engineer at Raytheon, Microelectronics Engineering & Technology Group, Raytheon

  • Marek Mierzwinski, Research and Development Engineer, Keysight Technologies

  • Josef Watts, Principal Member of the Technical Staff, GLOBALFOUNDRIES

  • Richard Williams, IBM

  • Peter Lee, Manager, Micron Technology

EDA Scripting Unleashed (Voted-Best-Paper)

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Author:  James Masters, Intel

In many traditional design flows, high-performance robust EDA capabilities are limited to formal EDA tools. Design Automation (DA) engineers build additional project-specific capabilities either by using an EDA tool’s proprietary scripting API or by creating a standalone lightweight script that relies upon translation of design data into other formats. This results in extra runtime overhead, additional possible points of failure, and a burden of working with lossy design data formats.

With the advent of oaScript, DA engineers can quickly write scripts that directly read and write OpenAccess (OA) data using one of their favorite scripting languages – Perl, Python, Ruby, or Tcl. Also, a new OA extension is now available which provides high-speed layer manipulation and boolean operations directly within an oaScript – called “oaxPop” (OA eXtension Polygon Operators).

The combination of oaScript with oaxPop enables a DA engineer to write high-performance robust EDA capabilities without the overhead of using a formal EDA tool. This presentation will demonstrate how oaScript and oaxPop have been used together to create real-life applications that are used in a production design flow.

james_masters_-_eda_scripting_unleashed_-_real-life_examples_using_oascript_and_oaxpop

BIO:

James Masterjames_master_1000x1000s graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology with an emphasis on computer programming. He has worked at Intel Corporation for 20 years in various full-custom design implementation roles.

James is currently managing a team focused on improving custom layout productivity for Intel’s advanced process technologies. James is an advocate of open standards that help streamline the design flow and maximize productivity and reuse.

Outside of work James enjoys outdoor activities such as camping, fishing, hiking, gardening, etc.