Denso Gains Significant Productivity and Quality-of-Results Advantages with Cadence Mixed-Signal, Low-Power Solutions

Cadence Unified Custom/Analog and Digital Flows, Shrink Chip Area and Power Consumption While Boosting Productivity on Automotive IC Design

SAN JOSE, Calif., 28 Aug 2012 -- Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), a leader in global electronic design innovation, announced today that automotive parts manufacturer Denso Corp. experienced significant quality and productivity improvements on a low-power mixed-signal IC design after switching to Cadence® custom/analog and digital flows. After deploying the Cadence Encounter® RTL-to-GDSII flow on the digital portion of the design, Denso reported a 10 percent reduction in area and a 20 percent reduction in power compared to previous vendor flows. On the analog part of the design, based on the results of multiple test data, Denso achieved a 30 percent improvement in productivity using the Cadence Virtuoso® custom/analog flow (v6.1) and predicts the same improvement in actual designs. The result for Denso is a significant productivity and quality-of-results advantage.

“In the highly competitive automotive electronics market, reliability is a must,” said Yoichi Oishi, manager of the Electronics Device Business Unit at Denso during his recent speech at the CDNLive! Japan technical conference. “We needed to revamp our design tools so we could develop chips more efficiently without compromising on quality. After adopting the Cadence Encounter and Virtuoso flows, we achieved our goals in terms of chip quality and time to market.”

To achieve improved power, performance and area on the digital parts of advanced node designs, Denso used the Encounter RTL-to-GDSII flow, which includes Encounter RTL Compiler for global synthesis and the Encounter Digital Implementation System for design implementation. For the analog sections, Denso deployed Virtuoso Schematic Editor, Virtuoso Layout Suite and Virtuoso Analog Design Environment in a complete custom/analog flow from spec-driven multi-test environment with sensitivity analysis and circuit parameter optimization for robust, centered designs through full custom layout.

For in-design and signoff extraction, Denso used Cadence QRC Extraction, which is tightly integrated into the Virtuoso and Encounter flows for faster convergence and time to market. By switching QRC Extraction from another vendor’s technology, Denso was able to eliminate the file interface and directly manage data from Virtuoso environment, resulting in a productivity boost and faster time to market.

“Cadence provides customers like Denso with a complete mixed-signal and low-power design solution—one that can help them improve key metrics such as power, performance and area,” said Qi Wang, group director, Solutions Marketing at Cadence. “Whether they are working at advanced nodes or mainstream geometries, design teams are incorporating Cadence flows to meet ambitious business and market objectives.”

About Cadence

Cadence enables global electronic design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today's integrated circuits and electronics. Customers use Cadence software, hardware, IP, and services to design and verify advanced semiconductors, consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications equipment, and computer systems. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world to serve the global electronics industry. More information about the company, its products, and services is available at www.cadence.com.