STMicroelectronics Joins the IPL Alliance as the First Semiconductor Board Member

The IPL Alliance is an industry-wide collaborative effort to develop an interoperable ecosystem for custom design. Its current focus is on PDK standards. The IPL Alliance released IPL 1.0, the semiconductor industry's first open standard for interoperable process design kits, in February 2010. Semiconductor companies and foundries can use this standard to build a single iPDK that works with multiple OpenAccess-based custom design tools, reducing development costs and the need to support vendor-specific process design kits (PDKs). Electronic design automation (EDA) vendors can use this standard to validate that their tools work with the iPDKs delivered by foundries and integrated device manufacturers (IDMs).

STMicroelectronics is interested in an open and interoperable multi-vendor analog and mixed-signal design flow that is efficient and productive throughout the AMS/RF custom design cycle, said Vincent Varo, CMOS and Derivative PDK Manager, Technology R&D, STMicroelectronics, and a board member of the IPL Alliance. The IPL standard, IPL 1.0, enables a single PDK to support any EDA vendor tool on native OpenAccess. IPL will contribute in bringing such an openness and industry standard format in view of the best-in-class PDK automation in terms of development, generation and validation. It also brings innovative approaches to resolve critical IC design issues such as reusability. IPL 1.0 addresses foundry concerns to deploy a more robust technology-qualified platform to the industry. As an IPL Alliance member, we look forward to participating in the advancement of its standards.

A strong collaboration between foundries, EDA vendors and semiconductor companies is needed to develop an interoperable ecosystem for custom design, said Jingwen Yuan, president of the IPL Alliance and strategic alliance manager at Synopsys. The addition of STMicroelectronics to the IPL Alliance, with its complex multi-vendor design flow development experience, will help validate the development and implementation of standards.