Antrim, Xpedion to ink system-level tool deal

Antrim, Xpedion to ink system-level tool deal
By Stephan Ohr, EE Times
May 15, 2001 (4:46 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010514S0073

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — Antrim Design Systems and Xpedion Design Systems this week will announce a technology development agreement on analog and mixed-signal design tools.

Under the terms of their agreement, Xpedion's RF simulation and modeling tools will be incorporated in Antrim's design and modeling framework. The companies believe this will produce a comprehensive design flow for RF and mixed-signal designs.

The goal of the partnership is to provide system-level modeling for wireless systems like cell phones. "We want to simulate an entire system from RF input to audio output," said Richard Curtin, vice president of sales and marketing for Xpedion (Santa Clara, Calif.).

As a first step, the companies will integrate the Xpedion GoldenGate family of RF modeling tools with Antrim's family of mixed-signal development tools. The Antrim-ACV will handle time-domain analysis, and Xpedion's GoldenGate will provide frequency-domain analy sis. While the initial marriage will produce a "glued" simulator — one part simulating low-frequency analog, the other simulating high-frequency RF — the vision calls for a totally integrated product, said Nelson Seiden, director of marketing for Antrim (Scotts Valley).

Xpedion's GoldenGate uses neural net technology to generate RF models that can easily be integrated into a Verilog-A-based simulator, Seiden said, then into the Antrim-AMS simulator for full chip-level analysis.

Antrim hopes to demonstrate the companies' glued simulator for the first time at the Microwave Technology and Techniques Symposium in Phoenix next week.