austriamicrosystems’ business unit Full Service Foundry (SWX: AMS) today announced a strategic alliance with Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) (Nasdaq: CDN) targeting analog integrated circuit (IC) design. The companies are collaborating to enable austriamicrosystems to deliver comprehensive HIT-Kits (austriamicrosystems process design kits, or PDKs) and reference flows based on the Cadence® Virtuoso® custom design platform. By optimizing the path from design through physical implementation, this collaboration enables analog IC designers to speed silicon to market.

“To succeed in today’s competitive analog IC market, designers must meet performance targets, challenging power specifications and aggressive market windows,” said Jan Willis, Senior Vice President, Industry Alliances, at Cadence. “Collaborating with leading analog foundries, such as austriamicrosystems, helps designers address these challenges with increased productivity and improved design quality.”

“Working with Cadence offers significant benefits to our common customers, as they get access to comprehensive information from both companies, such as design software and process data,” said Peter Gasteiner, Senior Vice President and General Manager of austriamicrosystems' business unit Full Service Foundry. “In addition, we are working on establishing a seamless analog reference flow that utilizes our leading analog process design kit – the HIT-Kit – with the Cadence Virtuoso platform. By delivering solutions to accelerate the design of silicon-accurate analog ICs, we can help our customers focus on their core competency – designing ICs.”

In combination with the Cadence Virtuoso platform, the HIT-Kit supports designers in creating their first-time-right analog designs, even for complex systems, due to its highly accurate simulation models. The current release, HIT-Kit v3.60, is available for the Cadence Virtuoso platform and includes high performance 0.35µm CMOS, SiGe-CMOS and High Voltage CMOS process technologies. Besides the simulation models, the HIT-Kit ships with fully silicon qualified standard cells, I/O cells, general purpose analog cells, custom analog and RF devices, verification rule sets and tools to support design-for-manufacturing (DFM).

More information about austriamicrosystems and its collaboration with Cadence can be found at http://www.cadence.com

About austriamicrosystems
austriamicrosystems is a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance analog ICs, combining more than 20 years of analog design capabilities and system know-how with its own state-of-the-art manufacturing and test facilities. austriamicrosystems leverages its expertise in low power and high accuracy to provide industry-leading customized and standard analog products. Operating worldwide with more than 800 employees, austriamicrosystems focuses on the areas of power management, sensors & sensor interfaces, portable audio and car access through its business units Communications, Industry & Medical, Automotive and Full Service Foundry. austriamicrosystemss is listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange in Zurich (ticker symbol: AMS).