Intel Custom Foundry Expands Offering with Reliability Checking Using Calibre PERC

WILSONVILLE, Ore., June 4, 2015 - Mentor Graphics Corp. (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced that Intel Custom Foundry is expanding its 14nm platform offering to include reliability verification based on the Calibre® PERC™ platform for its customers. Intel and Mentor Graphics jointly developed an initial set of electrical checks to help improve IC dependability, and are also collaborating to add additional check types over time for foundry customers on Intel’s 14nm process.

“Collaborating with Mentor on a comprehensive suite of reliability checks helps ensure that mutual customer designs achieve the highest level of dependability, quality, and robustness for the Intel 14nm platform which includes the second generation of tri-gate transistors in high-volume manufacturing” said Venkat Immaneni, Senior Director, Foundry Design Kit Enablement for Intel Custom Foundry. “We are pleased to be able to expand the number of solutions Intel Custom Foundry offers on the Mentor Calibre platform to include critical checks for reliability verification.”

Intel Custom Foundry will provide customers with Calibre PERC rule decks that perform reliability checks designed to address customers’ advanced circuit verification needs for electrostatic discharge (ESD), electrical overstress (EOS), signals crossing multiple power domains, and other reliability concerns. The Calibre PERC tool makes it possible to automate complex reliability checks by integrating knowledge of both the physical layout and the design netlist, which defines device types and connectivity.

This certification initiative is an extension of the 14nm enablement collaboration between Intel Custom Foundry and Mentor Graphics over the past year. Joint efforts have resulted in significant runtime improvements, a reduction in memory requirements for Calibre nmDRC and Calibre nmLVS, as well as optimizations and certification for the Analog FastSPICE (AFS) platform to support Intel Custom Foundry’s device models and design kits.

“Our ongoing work with Intel Custom Foundry gives our mutual customers an industry leading signoff environment with excellent performance,” said Joseph Sawicki, vice president and general manager of the Design-to-Silicon division at Mentor Graphics. “With the addition of Calibre PERC-based reliability checking to the Intel Custom Foundry 14nm offering, we continue to proactively deliver the exacting capabilities needed for advanced process nodes.”  

Intel has started to make the Calibre PERC tool’s reliability checks available to customers of Intel Custom Foundry on the 14nm platform.

For more information on Intel Custom Foundry, please visit Intel.com/Foundry.

(Mentor Graphics, Mentor, and Calibre are registered trademarks and PERC is a trademark, and PERC, nmDRC, and nmLVS are trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.)