A METHODOLOGY KIT FOR ARM PROCESSOR DESIGN is now available from Cadence. The kit extends the ongoing Cadence-ARM collaboration in their Encounter Reference Methodology. In addition to the methodology, the kit contains Cadence Encounter RTL synthesis; First Encounter silicon virtual prototyping; front-end views for the ARM Artisan SAGE-X standard-cell libraries for the TSMC 130- and 90-nm processes; and service and support options. Visit www.cadence.com/datasheets/armopt_ds.pdf for more.
BY COMPRESSING GDSII FILES by up to 20 times, Softjin Technologies' GDSIIZIP significantly reduces the size of IC layout files and makes file-transfer times more manageable. Instead of requiring a T3 line to transfer 200 Gbytes of GDSII data, which can take 1.5 hours, a GDSIIZIP-compressed file can be transferred on a much less costly T1 line in the same amount of time. GDSIIZIP offers compression that's about four to five times more dense than freely available compression utilities. An annual per-user license is $2000. Download a free evaluation copy from the Softjin site. For details, visit www.softjin.com.