Cadence Encounter Digital Technology Helps Renesas Gain Advantage in Design Power, Area and Productivity

A Leading Semiconductor Company Reduces Clock Power by 30% for its New Generation of Microcontroller Chips

SAN JOSE, Calif., 18 Jul 2012 -- Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), a leader in global electronic design innovation, announced today that Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, significantly improved power, area and productivity by using Cadence® Encounter® digital technology to tape out its new generation of automotive 32-bit microcontrollers (MCU). These latest MCUs were designed specifically for integrating system control and network processing functions of car infotainment devices on one chip.

In modern MCU designs, clock networks can contribute about a third of overall chip power consumption. Using key technology from the Encounter RTL-to-GDSII flow, Renesas reduced clock power by 30 percent on its new MCUs. Furthermore, the Cadence Encounter Digital Implementation (EDI) System and its new Clock Concurrent Optimization (CCOpt) technology enabled Renesas to automate complex timing closure using clock delay control to and from hard macros simultaneously with datapath optimization. As a result, Renesas engineers were able to successfully deliver an MCU solution that supports multiple high-bandwidth protocols such as Ethernet and MOST (Media Oriented System Transport).

“Automotive OEMs are demanding lower power-consuming devices with smaller footprints and better performance to address broader concerns about the environment and fuel consumption,” said Hiroyuki Suzuki, associate general manager of the MCU Product-design Division of Renesas Electronics Corporation. “The EDI System enabled our engineers to eliminate several manual steps and tape out a 160MHz device with reduced power and area, while hitting our performance target and market window.”

The Cadence Encounter RTL-to-GDSII flow helps design teams optimize power, performance, and area for the world’s most advanced high-performance, low-power MCU designs. The integrated Cadence flow includes Encounter RTL Compiler, EDI System, and signoff-proven Cadence QRC Extraction, and Encounter Timing System. In addition, the CCOpt technology unifies clock tree synthesis with logic/physical optimization resulting in significant power, performance and area improvements.

“Cadence is committed to continue to lead technology innovations to address the ever increasing market requirements,” said Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu, senior vice president, Silicon Realization Group at Cadence. “Our Encounter RTL-to-GDSII design, implementation, and signoff solution helps leading companies like Renesas hit ambitious market windows with the highest-quality silicon to meet today’s demands of higher performance, lower power and smaller silicon area.”

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, hardware, IP, 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.