Alphawave Adopts Diakopto's PrimeX™ as Top-Level EM/IR Signoff Methodology for 5nm and 3nm Technologies

San Jose, CA – September 6, 2022 -- Diakopto today announced that Alphawave IP (AWE.L) has selected PrimeX™ as their power net EM/IR signoff solution for 5nm and 3nm technologies. PrimeX enables new capabilities and methodologies not feasible with other EM/IR tools, and allows Alphawave to verify their top-level designs significantly faster and more intelligently. As a result, Alphawave can achieve higher power grid reliability and integrity for their industry-leading interconnect IPs much faster than with other EM/IR solutions.

As a global leader in high-speed connectivity, Alphawave delivers multi-standard IP solutions that enable data to travel faster, more reliably and with higher performance at lower power. Alphawave’s connectivity solutions address high-growth applications such as hyperscale data centers, data networking, artificial intelligence, storage, 5G infrastructure and autonomous vehicles. The company’s interconnect IP portfolio is available in the most advanced process technologies (from 7nm to 3nm) and in multiple foundries.

“We have adopted PrimeX for our top-level signoff methodology because of its ability to analyze very large power nets that are impractical to simulate using other tools. It helps us accelerate time-to-tapeout and improve design efficiency and reliability in leading-edge technology nodes by allowing us to accurately validate key electrical targets at the top level of integration, identify design and layout improvements, and iterate quickly,” said Jon Rogers, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Alphawave IP. “Diakopto is changing the industry with its approach to solving critical and overlooked problems in today’s IC designs. We are pleased to broaden our relationship with them to now include ParagonX and PrimeX, and we look forward to additional innovative solutions.”

PrimeX is developed to analyze very large power nets in a more intelligent way – to quickly and intuitively pinpoint bottlenecks and root causes of resistance, IR drop, and current density problems over the layout. By delivering deep insights with clear, intuitive results that identify weaknesses, by layer and polygon over the layout, PrimeX helps engineers improve their power net integrity and reliability while accelerating time-to-market.

In addition, PrimeX delivers unparalleled ease-of-use and a unique out-of-the-box experience that allows any IC design or layout engineer to very easily set up, run and use the tool with minimal training. It also offers dramatically higher capacity and simulation speed to enable the verification of power nets at the top-hierarchy level in a practical manner. For example, the full characterization of large power nets with hundreds of millions of resistors can be completed in hours instead of days or weeks.

“We are pleased to expand our partnership with Alphawave, and to see PrimeX being adopted as their signoff solution for top-hierarchy power grids in the most advanced nodes,” commented Maxim Ershov, CEO and CTO of Diakopto. “By taking a fresh and innovative approach, we are able to disrupt conventional methodologies to offer a faster, more intelligent, and intuitive solution for power net verification, optimization and debugging.”

The industry migration to advanced process nodes has led to an exponential increase in the number, magnitude and complexity of parasitic elements. This has in turn made modern ICs more susceptible to parasitic effects, and has also caused a dramatic slowdown in simulation times. While traditional EM/IR tools are adequate for the verification of sub-blocks, using them to analyze power integrity and reliability at the top level, and especially at early design phases, has become increasing challenging and impractical. Using these tools for full characterization of nets can easily take several weeks per iteration – a luxury few companies can afford. And they can only be used very late in the design stage when layouts are mostly complete and onerous to change.

PrimeX enhances existing EM/IR methodologies by enabling engineers to perform very fast power grid verification, at both the block and top levels. By delivering clear, intuitive results that identify weaknesses and bottlenecks by layer and polygon over the layout, PrimeX helps engineers improve their circuits’ power integrity and reliability while accelerating time-to-market.

About Diakopto Inc.

Diakopto develops analysis, visualization, and optimization solutions for complex IC designs, with the primary focus on enhancing existing EDA flows to accelerate time-to-tapeout. The company empowers engineers at over 45 industry-leading companies to find and resolve design problems faster and earlier, while simultaneously optimizing their circuits. Diakopto is headquartered in San Jose, CA. www.diakopto.com

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