Melfas Uses Magma's Talus and FineSim SPICE to Tape Out Low-Power, ARM Cortex Processor-Based Mixed-Signal SoCs

Integrated RTL-to-GDSII platform and fast, accurate circuit simulation tool reduce time to market and cost

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 2, 2010 – Magma Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA), a provider of chip design software, today announced that Melfas, a leader in capacitive-sensing touch input solutions, has used the Talus® platform, including Talus RTL, Talus Vortex and Talus Power Pro, and the FineSim™ SPICE circuit simulation tool to implement two of its next-generation MCS-8000 touch sensor chips, which feature ARM® Cortex™ processors. The Melfas ICs are used in mobile phones, smartphones, MP3 players, monitors and other consumer electronics. With the Talus platform and Magma’s RTL-to-GDSII reference flow for ARM Cortex processor-based designs, Melfas was able to reduce power by over 5 percent, area by 20 percent and turnaround time by 50 percent, compared to their previous implementation flow. FineSim enabled Melfas to complete top-level, post-layout analog circuit simulation 10 times faster, without sacrificing accuracy.

“Our customers demand low-cost turnkey touch screen module solutions that provide advanced functionality without increased power consumption,” said Dongjin Min, chief technical officer of Melfas. “The Magma software provides the capabilities we need to reduce turnaround time, area and power of our mixed-signal SoCs. The reference flow and Magma tools’ proven ability to streamline integration of ARM Cortex-M series processors into complex designs gave us greater confidence in achieving silicon success.”

“Touch screen controllers offer more flexibility than buttons and are increasingly being used in mobile phones, personal media players, digital cameras, navigation devices, home appliances and more,” said Premal Buch, general manager of Magma’s Design Implementation Business Unit. “In consumer applications such as these, minimizing IC cost and power consumption and accelerating development cycles are critical requirements. Melfas’ decision to adopt the Magma software demonstrates its ability to address these challenges.”

Talus: Fastest Path to Silicon™ for Low-Cost, Low-Power Chips

The Talus platform provides a comprehensive, integrated RTL-to-GDSII flow for low-power, low-cost chip design. Talus RTL is a full-chip synthesis environment that enables rapid development of RTL and chip-level constraints throughout the design process. Talus Vortex performs timing optimization concurrently during routing – rather than sequentially before and after place and route – providing faster overall design closure with better performance and predictability. When used in conjunction, Talus RTL and Talus Vortex dramatically shorten turnaround time without sacrificing design quality and improve designer productivity. Talus Power Pro supports power optimization techniques required in low-power designs, including multiple voltage domains, which enable the optimal tradeoff between performance, area and power, and clock gating for dynamic power reduction. Talus Power Pro supports both the UPF and CPF standards for power intent.FineSim SPICE: Fast and Accurate Simulation

FineSim SPICE is a SPICE-level simulation analysis tool that incorporates transistor-level simulation analysis capabilities for mixed-signal and analog designs. FineSim SPICE is a full SPICE simulation engine with distributed processing that enables customers to simulate large-scale mixed-signal system chips at the transistor level. By providing increased speed and capacity while maintaining full SPICE accuracy, FineSim SPICE enables designers to simulate advanced circuits – such as PLLs, ADCs (analog-to-digital converters), DACs (digital-to-analog converters) and gigahertz SERDES (SERializer/DESerializer) – that they previously would not even attempt using slower traditional SPICE simulators.

About Magma

Magma's electronic design automation (EDA) software provides the "Fastest Path to Silicon"™ and enables the world's top chip companies to create high-performance integrated circuits (ICs) for cellular telephones, electronic games, WiFi, MP3 players, digital video, networking and other electronic applications. Magma products are used in IC implementation, analog/mixed-signal design, analysis, physical verification, circuit simulation and characterization. The company maintains headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and offices throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Magma's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Follow Magma on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/MagmaEDA and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Magma. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.