( ESNUG 291 Item 7 ) ----------------------------------------------- [5/27/98]
Subject: ( ESNUG 288 #11 ) What's The Skinny On Aspec, Leda, and Virage?
> To reduce the risk involved in this project, we're leaning towards a
> library provider (Standard cell, I/O and RAM/ROM) that can also provide
> the design services. (No library-integration-finger-pointing, missing
> views, learning curves, etc.) Unfortunately this limits the field to
> just Aspec. .. Are there any designer references out there willing to
> praise [punish] Aspec and their library and/or design service offerings?
> Reasons to use libraries from Leda Systems, and RAM/ROM from Virage?
From: [ Beetlejuice ]
John -
I too would also like to keep my company name anonymous because we are still
in the process of evaluations. We are in a similar position in that our
company would like to work with a library vendor which provides "backend"
ASIC services along with standard cells, I/O and memory library components.
We like this model because:
1: We are a small brand new startup so the traditional ASIC providers are
reluctant to give us a good deal, if they even return our calls
2: We get good pricing from IBM, Charter, UMC ... if we give them masks
and just buy wafers
3: We are really aggressive so we need very responsive "backend" services.
If something needs tweeked or customized to squeeze every last ns out
of a path, we need to have a way to put those polygons exactly where
they need to go.
I'd like to point out that in addition to Aspec, NurLogic Design provides
the full service "backend" capability, too. Regarding library performance,
we've evaluated several std cell libraries and NurLogic's library is by far
the best library we have seen at .35 and .25. Their 1000+ std cell library
cell set consistently achieves better area and timing results than other
libraries with Design Compiler. We also like the fact that we can get the
IOs, Rams, DACs, ADC, PLLs, custom cells... that we need from them. Getting
the traditional ASIC guys to do anything special for you is much tougher.
- [ Beetlejuice ]
[ Editor's Note: Besides this e-mail, I recieved 5 other e-mails from sales
and marketing types recommending their own company. Of course, I'm not
going to bother reprinting their ads here in ESNUG. (I figure if there's
no customer writing about how "great" they are, they're not worth
listening to themselves.) I just wanted to point out that there are
quite a few companies hungry to offer such services. In addition, you
may want to read ESNUG 276 #8, 278 #6, and 280 #3 for more actual *user*
opinions about specific companies/services in this design niche. - John ]
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