Si2 Releases ECSM 2.0 Standard For Design Libraries

Austin, TX -- The Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2) released the first deliverable from the Open Modeling Coalition (OMC) -- the Effective Current Source Modeling (ECSM) Version 2.0 specification. The OMC Working Group which produced the standard has representatives from industry leaders: Cadence Design Systems, Freescale Semiconductor, Intel, LSI Logic, Magma Design Automation, Silicon Navigator, Sun Microsystems, and Virage Logic.

"We are very pleased with the progress of the OMC," said Steve Schulz, president and CEO, Si2. "Since the coalition's formation in September of 2005, they have produced their first deliverable, and are progressing rapidly towards a comprehensive library modeling system which will change the way design libraries are produced. This collaborative effort by leaders in the EDA, IP, and IDM sectors will ease the way as the semiconductor industry moves toward smaller process nodes."

"The ECSM 2.0 specification is a significant deliverable from the OMC," said Jim Ensell, vice president, marketing and business development, Virage Logic. "The ECSM specification is particularly good at predicting the effect of non-linear waveforms on high impedance interconnects which helps enable us to create highly accurate design libraries using an open industry-standard format suitable for the next generation of semiconductor technology."

ECSM introduces accurate modeling capability by supporting a current source driver model, characterized as a voltage versus time and converted into a current source. The format provides additional cell characterization data for design libraries. The ECSM 2.0 specification approved by the OMC clarifies and extends the earlier ECSM format developed by Cadence Design Systems. It builds on and is compatible with the Liberty syntax used in current design libraries.

"For many years, customers have successfully leveraged ECSM in advanced nanometer designs," said Jan Willis, senior vice-president, Industry Alliances, Cadence. "We recognized the importance of having the evolution of the ECSM specification be guided by leaders in the industry under the stewardship of Si2. Our customers and the entire industry will benefit from the existence of open formats that support more accurate design libraries."

The OMC recently outlined a roadmap with a set of future deliverables in a meeting held at DesignCon 2006 in February. These deliverables will include extensions to the ECSM specification for power and signal integrity, as well as recommendations for extending design library models into the statistical domain. At the upcoming OpenAccess Conference in April, the OMC plans to present the reference flow architecture including static and dynamic use cases with IP coming from multiple sources.

SOURCE: The Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2)