Fujitsu and Cadence Design Systems have agreed a global partnership deal under which they will create advanced SoC design environments. The companies believe there is an urgent need for new design methodologies for the development of advanced SoCs, particularly for the latest designs that have process technologies of 90nm and beyond.
The semiconductor industry's rapid product cycles are driven by constant technological advances and are subject to volatile market fluctuations. This makes it increasingly difficult to keep pace with the latest design environment requirements and quickly deploy new design methodologies to worldwide design facilities, say the companies.
The partnership agreement is thought to be different as it provides design solutions that go beyond a simple sales agreement for EDA tools.
The agreement encompasses thousands of Cadence licences, including numerous SoC Encounter licences and all the Fujitsu Group design centres will have access to licenses covered by this agreement.
In addition to its standard support, Cadence will provide personnel support to the Fujitsu Group and its design centres.
Under this agreement, Fujitsu will deploy to all of its design centres the combination of a variety of licences and a new design methodology known as physical prototyping (also referred to as silicon virtual prototyping) for SoC development employing 0.13micron technology.