VIA’s Centaur Achieves Significant Benefits Using Cadence Virtuoso Space-Based Router at 65 Nanometers

Centaur Technology Improves Quality and Time Savings with Cadence Technology

SAN JOSE, Calif., Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), the global leader in EDA360, today announced that VIA Technology’s microprocessor subsidiary, Centaur Technology, achieved significant quality and time-to-market benefits by using the Cadence® Virtuoso® Space-Based Router on its latest set of processors. Centaur used the Cadence router to help design its new 65-nanometer Nano 3000 Series processors, designed to bring enhanced digital media performance and lower power consumption to Windows 7 notebook and desktop PC markets. Centaur adopted the Space-Based Router for 65-nanometer custom datapath designs and standard cell routing.

“Compared to our previous routing solution, the Cadence Space-Based Router provided dramatic benefits in four areas: automation, throughput, density and reduced design rule checker (DRC) count,” said Beth Longwell of Centaur Technology. “For example, we cut our routing cycle time in half, and block densities were increased up to 25 percent while meeting clock route requirements.”

The Virtuoso Space-Based Router helps designers achieve shorter time to convergence, better quality of silicon, and differentiated products for consumer and wireless markets. Its high capacity easily handles flat and hierarchical data for 250,000 net designs, while its high-performance, multi-threaded implementation accelerates completion of the largest designs. The innovative hierarchical, 3-D space-based architecture enables accurate modeling, manipulation and checking of sophisticated geometries and constraints for sub-65-nanometer interconnect design closure. And its signoff-quality advanced design-rule interconnect checking system delivers correct-by-construction design closure.

“VIA’s Centaur team experienced firsthand the benefits of using the right routing technology on advanced-node designs,” said John Stabenow, technical marketing group director at Cadence. “Its state-of-the-art Nano 3000 Series processors validate the efficient and cost-effective routing made possible by the Virtuoso Space-Based Router.”

About Cadence
Cadence enables global electronic design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today’s integrated circuits and electronics. Customers use Cadence software and hardware, methodologies, and services to design and verify advanced semiconductors, consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications equipment, and computer systems. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world to serve the global electronics industry. More information about the company, its products, and services is available at www.cadence.com.