sci-worx is opening a design centre on the doorstep of Hamburg

A microelectronics company is treading new paths for taking on staff
sci-worx sees itself as a forerunner in the IP growth market

Hanover, 15th December 2000- sci-worx is opening a design centre on 1st January 2001 on the doorstep of Hamburg. Ten new people are employed to date; by the end of 2002 it will number at least 50. The business park of Helmspark in Seevetal/Hittfeld in Niedersachsen was chosen as the location. "What swayed it for us was the excellent transport network and especially the close proximity of the Hamburg Harburg Technical College", says Managing Director Jürgen Ruprecht. "Our development centres go where the specialised workers are." Hamburg is only the start; more branches are in the pipeline. sci-worx' novel concept for employing staff also entails in house training to become chip developers for people with a technical leaning; not every applicant has to be an engineer. The introduction of workplaces in the home is also in the pipeline. "We are hoping that our employees will have a flexible choice of workplace with the combination of various branches and home offices", explains Ruprecht. The company wants to counteract the current shortage of skilled workers with these measures. Like the employees at the offices that exist to date in Hanover, Brunswick and Palo Alto, California, the new employees will work on Intellectual Property (IP) modules and system-on-chip (SoC) solutions and thereby revolutionise the semiconductor sector.
Joining the Verification Alliance program, sci-worx introduces a new methodology to reduce customers' verification load by providing IP (DesignObjects®) together with reusable verification components.
Focusing on highquality IP, sci-worx integrates Verisity's tools into both its design flow and the existing IP Qualification and Certification process.

The rapid development of manufacturing technology in microelectronics enables ever more complex systems to be located on a single microchip (SoC). "Theoretically, a single development engineer would have to work for 500 years on a microchip that contains all the functions required today", explains Thomas Hoetzel, Chief Operating Officer. Studies in the sector verify that this complexity is growing by around 60 percent every year.
Related to the Verification Alliance program the Microelectronic Akademie, a sci-worx subsidiary, will extend its training program for instructing engineers in using Verisity's e-verification language.

Therefore the use of reusable circuit modules, socalled IP modules, is essential for the solution of this resources problem.

Hoetzel forecasts: "IP modules will fundamentally change the working methods in the semiconductor industry." Up to this, it was the norm in microelectronics that companies developed a complete microchip on their own. Buying in prefabricated modules was not common. The increasing complexity of microchips is changing the attitude of the semiconductor manufacturers, and is thus paving the way for the IP market. sci-worx is ninth in the world in this new, rapidly growing market. Its target is to make it to the first five of the international IP suppliers by 2004.

With this in mind, the company has developed its own IP brand: DesignObjects®. At present, sci-worx has on offer around 90 of these modules. The microelectronics company is focusing on the communications market and is working on secure solutions for line, mobile and encoded communication. "We are working among others on the DesignObjects of the third generation of mobile phones for UMTS", Dr. Achim Ibenthal, Chief System Architect, gives a concrete example of the IP strategy. "Without prefabricated DesignObjects, the tight timeframe for the introduction of UMTS could hardly be adhered to."

Contact sci-worx Headquarters:
sci-worx GmbH
Phone: +49 (0) 511 277-1619
Mobile: +49 (0)170 570 5613
Fax: +49 (0) 511 277-2610