Magma's Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS Adopted by Toshiba Corporation for Verification and Yield Improvement of Advanced Flash Memory Designs

Advanced Electrical Behavior Analysis Capabilities Validated on 32-nm Designs

SAN JOSE, Calif. and YOKOHAMA, Japan, Nov. 23, 2009 -- Magma(R) Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of chip design software, today announced that Quartz(TM) DRC and Quartz LVS will be deployed by Toshiba Corporation for flash memory designs. Toshiba standardized on Magma's physical verification products after validating their accuracy on 32-nanometer (nm) designs. Quartz DRC's and Quartz LVS's advanced features were shown to improve the yield and reliability of Toshiba's flash memory designs.

Traditional DRC and LVS tools analyze only physical behavior, an approach that either introduces undue conservatism or fails to identify effects that affect product reliability. At advanced process nodes, analysis of electrical behavior is also required. Magma's Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS are the first tools to provide both physical and electrical analysis.

"We've been using Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS on our system LSI designs for over two years, and they have proven to provide the high-capacity, high-speed and highly reliable physical verification we require," said Masaki Momodomi, Technology Executive for Memory of Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company. "Through joint work to validate these tools, we are now using it for both static and dynamic physical verification to increase product reliability and decrease project cycles of our 32-nm flash memory designs."

"Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS offer significantly faster turnaround time while providing full compatibility with legacy industry tools," said Anirudh Devgan, general manager of Magma's Custom Design Business Unit. "By combining these tools with the FineSim(TM) circuit simulator, Magma offers an innovative solution for advanced process designs. Toshiba's decision to expand the use of Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS to its flash memory products highlights the Magma products' unique abilities to address the verification challenges of 32-nm designs."

Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS: Fast, Accurate, Fully Scalable Physical Verification

Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS are architected to process integrated circuit (IC) designs of any size, at any technology node, in the least amount of time. Magma's is the first truly scalable physical verification solution, able to provide turnaround time that is up to an order of magnitude faster than existing solutions while using existing compute resources. Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS are fully compatible with third-party IC implementation flows and can read file formats used by traditional physical verification tools.

About Magma

Magma's electronic design automation (EDA) software provides the "Fastest Path to Silicon"(TM) 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. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.