HHGrace and Empyrean Continue Their Cooperation on Local EDA Tools to Facilitate IP Design

Shanghai, China - April 27, 2017 -- Shanghai Huahong Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (“HHGrace”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hua Hong Semiconductor Limited (stock code: 1347.HK), a global, leading pure-play 200mm foundry and Huada Empyrean Software Co., Ltd. (“Empyrean”), jointly announce that HHGrace has adopted and successfully taped out Empyrean’s high-speed, high-precision parallel simulator ALPS™. This electronic design automation (EDA) solution performs pre- and post-layout analog/mixed-mode simulations of multiple analog and embedded non-volatile memory IP designs. This cooperation is the next step in the successful partnership that began in 2013, when HHGrace adopted Skipper™, Empyrean’s one-stop layout analysis and processing tool.

HHGrace’s advanced and differentiated technology platforms are widely used in the fields of smart cards, micro controller units (MCU), sensors, power management, power discretes, intelligent grids, smart meters, smart homes, intelligent hardware, wireless radio frequency, the new-energy automobile and the Internet of Things. HHGrace is devoted to providing its customers with chips that use less power, are smaller in size, exhibit better performance and enable shorter time-to-market.

Empyrean’s ALPS™ reduces the simulation time for IP designs significantly and provides accuracy that cannot be achieved by traditional Fast SPICE* simulators, thus making ALPS™ both fast and highly accurate. In post-layout and mixed-mode simulation for ADC and PLL circuits, ALPS™ is 3~5 times faster than conventional fast simulators, while maintaining exceptionally high accuracy. Thanks to its unique “Smart Matrix Solver” technology, advanced multi-core parallel optimization, efficient memory management and advanced simulation step control technology, ALPS™ can simulate large post-layout circuits in a much shorter time than traditional True SPICE simulation tools.

In addition, for large-scale layout verification and analysis, Empyrean’s Skipper™ also provides powerful support for the tape-out process, development of PCM test components, and physical layout verification and analysis. Skipper™ has the fastest loading speed in the industry, and that facilitates efficient handling of super-large physical layout data. It also supports comparison of two layouts, and provides an easy way to analyze differences between them. Skipper™ supports scripts based on the Tcl programming language, making it easy to extend functionalities to automate processing steps, shorten data handling time, and effectively maintain total tape-out cycle time.

Dr. Weiran Kong, Executive Vice President of Technology Development and Design Services at HHGrace, expresses his high regard the cooperation between HHGrace and Empyrean on EDA tools -- “Empyrean is the first local Chinese EDA tool supplier that HHGrace has teamed up with. In particular, Empyrean’s True SPICE simulation tool ALPS™ facilitates aspects of our IP design projects. The cooperation with Empyrean will enable HHGrace to provide better services for IC design and manufacturing, bringing extensive benefits to our customers.”

Dr. Xiaodong Yang, Chief Technology Officer of Empyrean, says that, “We really appreciate that HHGrace selects us as the EDA supplier for its IP design business. As a user of our tools, HHGrace has given us many valuable suggestions to improve our products and promote the development of local EDA tools. We look forward to a deeper and closer cooperation with HHGrace to set an example for the strategic partnership between local semiconductor enterprises.”

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* SPICE is a general-purpose circuit simulation program originating from the EECS Department of the University of California at Berkeley.

About HHGrace

Shanghai Huahong Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (“HHGrace”), incorporated through the consolidation between Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics Company, Limited (“Hua Hong NEC”) and Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (“Grace”), is a global leading pure-play 200mm foundry. HHGrace has three 200mm wafer fabrication facilities in Zhangjiang and Jinqiao of Shanghai, HHGrace offers production capacity over 155,000 wafers per month. HHGrace provides professional and highly value-added foundry services covering technology solutions from 1.0μm to 90nm process nodes, focusing on differentiated technologies including eNVM (embedded Non-Volatile Memory), power management IC, power discrete, RF, as well as standard logic and mixed-signal. HHGrace is also in the process of developing MEMS solutions as one of its up-and-coming technologies. With its headquarters located in Shanghai, China, HHGrace extends its sales and technical supports to Taiwan, Japan, North America and Europe.

For more information about HHGrace, please visit: www.huahonggrace.com

About Empyrean

Founded in June 2009, Beijing Huada Empyrean Software Co., Ltd. is a world-famous EDA / IP supplier, also a state-holding enterprise affiliated to China Electronics Corporation (CEC). It is dedicated to providing professional EDA software and IP, AMS IC design solutions, digital SoC design and optimization solutions, flat panel display (FPD) design and optimization solutions, and customized services.

Please go to www.empyrean.com.cn for more information about Empyrean.