CPF-Based Faraday SoCompiler Design Services Leverages the Cadence Low-Power Solution to Achieve> 99% Leakage Reduction and 65% Dynamic Power Reduction and Significantly Reduced Design Time
HSINCHU, Taiwan and SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 28 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035), a leading ASIC and silicon IP provider, and NemoChips, an emerging leader in low power multimedia platform ICs, today announced that NemoChips has successfully taped out a low-power mobile video platform SoC leveraging Faraday's SoCompiler Design Services employing the Common Power Format (CPF)-enabled Cadence(R)
(Nasdaq: CDNS) Low-Power Solution. This leading-edge design took only 2 months from netlist to tape-out while achieving an impressive >99% leakage reduction and 65% dynamic power reduction using advanced techniques such as Dynamic Voltage & Frequency Scaling, Multi-Supply Voltages, and Power-Shut Off. ASIC customers designing complex and power sensitive SoCs can benefit from this proven methodology to dramatically reduce time to market as well as to reduce implementation risk.
NemoChips' low power, high performance, multimedia application processor is targeted for use within mobile terminals, including mobile handsets, portable media players, portable navigation devices and car entertainment systems. It delivers DVD quality video to mobile devices without video format limitation.
"We are pleased with the performance, power savings and rapid tape-out of our mobile application processor chip, which provides desktop-like multimedia experience to our customer on handheld devices without sacrificing battery life." said Dr. Lifeng Zhao, President of NemoChips Inc. "Faraday has clearly demonstrated strong expertise in implementing complex low-power chips."
"We are pleased with the performance, power savings and rapid tape-out of our mobile application processor chip, which provides desktop-like multimedia experience to our customer on handheld devices without sacrificing battery life." said Dr. Lifeng Zhao, President of NemoChips Inc. "Faraday has clearly demonstrated strong expertise in implementing complex low-power chips."
Faraday's SoCompiler Design Services team used the Si2 standard Common Power Format to specify power-saving techniques early, so the information could be reused throughout the design process. The Cadence Low-Power Solution integrates logic design, verification, and implementation with CPF, automating power-saving design techniques like dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) without impacting delivery schedules.
In the early stages of the DVFS design, Faraday used Cadence Conformal LP, Logic Equivalence Checker (LEC), and Faraday's internal design kit, to handle best-in-class verification for this complex low power design. The verification includes more than 30 automatic checking procedures in the design flow, and it can be automatically performed in a few minutes. Cadence Conformal Low Power technologies are highly complementary and help Faraday to extend its ability to provide low power technology to design bigger, faster chips.
"Faraday has always committed to providing the most competitive solution to our customers, and the Faraday PowerSmart(TM) design flow is a natural extension of that commitment," said Dr George Hwang, VP of International Business of Faraday Technology. "By working with Power Forward Initiative members Cadence and UMC, we are able to help Nemochips meet a set of stringent power requirements using a solution that provided a 2x productivity improvement, enabling delivery within a very short design cycle."
"Faraday's fast, low-risk delivery of a low-power mobile platform to NemoChips demonstrates the value of a highly automated and holistic low-power solution," said Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu, corporate vice president, IC Digital and Power Forward at Cadence. "We're excited about the continuing silicon successes of CPF-based Cadence Low Power Solution. And we're grateful for Faraday's recent contribution to "A Practical Guide to Low-Power Design - User experience with CPF," which is an online guide to low power design based entirely on actual user experience."
"A Practical Guide to Low-Power Design - User experience with CPF," is published online by the Power Forward Initiative and available free of charge at http://www.powerforward.org . In its chapter, Faraday provides valuable insight into the methodologies used by the Faraday SoCompiler Design Services team to make the NemoChips project a success.
About Power Forward Initiative
The Power Forward Initiative, which has more than 25 member companies, is an industry initiative sponsored by Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) and has the goal of enabling the design and production of more power-efficient electronic devices. The Advisory Group consists of representative companies across the design chain from microprocessors to IP to foundries and semiconductor companies and includes four EDA companies including Cadence. CPF v1.0 was contributed by Cadence to the Si2 Low Power Coalition in December 2006 and is now available as a Si2 standard to the industry at large. The Initiative has recently published A Practical Guide to Low-Power Design -- User experience with CPF which is aimed at educating the broad design marketplace in utilizing advanced low-power design techniques. The Guide is available free of charge at http://www.powerforward.org .
About Faraday Technology Corporation
Faraday Technology Corporation is a leading silicon IP and fabless ASIC vendor. The company's broad silicon IP portfolio includes Cell Library ,Memory Compiler, ARM-compliant CPUs, DDRII, MPEG4, H.264, USB 2.0, 10/100 Ethernet, Serial ATA, PCI Express, and UWB . With 2007 revenue of US$ 156 million, Faraday is one of the largest fabless ASIC companies in the Asia-Pacific region, and it also has a significant presence in other world-wide markets. Headquartered in Taiwan, Faraday has service and support offices around the world, including the U.S. , Japan , Europe, and China . For more information, please visit: http://www.faraday-tech.com .
Press contact
Carol Yang
Faraday Technology Corporation
Tel: +886-3-578-7888 ext 4047
Email: htyang@faraday-tech.com
