The Virtuoso® custom design platform is a comprehensive system that accelerates the process of getting differentiated designs into silicon-at a variety of design nodes.

It includes advances like new constraint-driven design, which preserves design intent by enabling efficient design collaboration. Designers can specify design needs, save these constraints in context with the design, and then use this information to drive the accelerated layout solution to reduce errors.

Industry-leading high-speed simulators meet the stringent simulation and analysis requirements for analog, RF, and mixed-signal designs. Meanwhile, a new custom floorplanner allows analog design teams to rapidly explore multiple design architectures-and the implications of these design choices-prior to implementation.

Improved layout capabilities, a new user interface that greatly simplifies the complex tasks analog designers must perform, and integrated DFM further enhance the Virtuoso platform. The result is the fastest, most accurate path to the most differentiated silicon possible.

FEATURES & BENEFITS

• Constraint-driven design-allows design intent to be saved with a design rather than relying on notes or email conversation. Tools within the Virtuoso platform obey these design constraints, reducing the risk of design changes that cause schedule slips.
• High-speed, multi-mode simulation-provides all the simulation technology a custom designer needs (SPICE, RF, mixed-signal, FastSPICE) in one optimized package. All the simulators share the same model files, equations, and infrastructure, making it easy to use the right tool for the right job.
• Accelerated layout-a combination of constraintdriven and rule-driven layout ensures that your custom layout is correct by construction the first time and is prepared for a rapid verification cycle.
• Accurate silicon analysis-solid extraction technology, the lynch-pin of the custom design flow, is built specifically for custom designers, specializing in both analog and RF circuitry. Seamless integration with the Virtuoso platform makes parasitic re-simulation and correction easy.
• Manufacturing-aware chip finishing-integrates the manufacturing nuance of lithography with the design flow during the design (rather than leaving it to a postprocessing step), which is critical for sub-90nm design. It’s built-in and easily accessible for non-lithography experts to tune their design before mask creation.