Phison Deploys Cadence Cerebrus AI-Driven Chip Optimization to Accelerate Product Development

January 23, 2024 -- Phison Electronics Corporation is a market leader in NAND Flash controllers and applications, including USB, SD, eMMC, PATA, SATA, PCIe, and UFS. The company has shipped over 600 million controllers worldwide yearly, topping over US 2.2 billion dollars in sales revenue. Recently, Phison successfully deployed the Cadence Cerebrus Intelligent Chip Explorer and the complete Cadence RTL-to-GDS digital full flow to optimize their next-generation 12nm NAND controller ICs. The generative AI technology-based Cadence Cerebrus enabled Phison to automatically reduce the power by 35% and area by 3% in a multi-million cell flash controller block.

To accelerate product development, Phison used Cadence Cerebrus with a specific focus on power and area. Cadence Cerebrus and the broader digital full flow—including Cadence’s Genus Synthesis Solution, Innovus Implementation System, and Tempus Timing Solution—provide optimal power, performance, and area (PPA) and faster turnaround time, enabling system-on-chip (SoC) design excellence.

“Chip area and power consumption are critical differentiators for our NAND controller ICs,” said Vincent Cheng, VP of engineering, Phison. “By adopting the Cadence Cerebrus generative AI technology, we can now rapidly optimize die area and power, enabling Phison to deliver more competitive products to our customers.”

Dr. Venkat Thanvantri, corporate vice president of AI R&D at Cadence said, “Cadence Cerebrus automatically reduced power by 35% on Phison’s designs in just one week, which clearly demonstrates how generative AI can improve results and productivity.”

The Phison design team successfully achieved their PPA goals significantly quicker than traditional manual design optimization using Cadence Cerebrus Intelligent Chip Explorer. The generative AI capability of Cadence Cerebrus helped Phison to achieve the desired results automatically in just one week. In addition to power and area optimizations, Cadence Cerebrus simultaneously reduced the turnaround time and helped Phison deliver higher-quality products much faster.