Claimed as the first system that includes both physical synthesis and optimization place-and-route tools, Cadence SP&R is a unified synthesis/place-and-route system for high-performance IC designs. The system supports design flows from register-transfer-level (RTL) or gates to tapeout. Both tools feature the firm's PKS technology and use common synthesis, placement, routing and timing engines.
The system consists of a new version of the Ambit PKS physical synthesis tool that uses the Silicon Ensemble router to perform actual global routing and a Silicon Ensemble place-and-route tool that integrates Ambit PKS physical synthesis. The flow solves circuit timing problems associated with conventional synthesis and place-and-route by addressing physical effects during synthesis. One-year pricing for Ambit PKS starts at $100,000 and at $400,000 for SE-PKS.