Place & route solution certified for 16nm FinFET Plus

In addition to the completion of certification in N16 FinFET Plus, Synopsys and TSMC are actively working on IC Compiler II certification in 10nm, underscoring the proven, long-standing partnership and close collaboration on technology development between the two companies. Derived from its ‘rethink, rebuild and reuse’ development strategy, IC Compiler II benefits from a range of industry-first technologies that deliver breakthrough capacity and QoR.

IC Compiler II is a full-featured place and route system architected from the ground-up to realise a substantial leap forward in designer productivity. It is built on a multi-threaded infrastructure able to handle large designs while continuing to utilise industry standard input and output formats, as well as familiar interfaces and process technology files. Leveraging this infrastructure, IC Compiler II offers ultra-high capacity design planning, new clock-building technology and patented global analytical optimisation enabling enhanced QoR in area, timing and power. Balancing innovation with strategic reuse of technologies in IC Compiler, IC Compiler II deploys the foundry-proven Zroute router and the linear-gradient placer that together with other innovative IC Compiler II technologies deliver full-flow colour enablement, support for connected poly-on-gate oxide and diffusion edge technology, smart layer optimisation, low Vdd timing closure and integrated support for signal electro-migration.

"N16 FinFET Plus certification marks the first milestone of TSMC and Synopsys collaboration on IC Compiler II," said Bijan Kiani, Vice President of product marketing, Design Group, Synopsys. "TSMC's rigorous, formal certification opens the door for designers to benefit more broadly from the capacity, throughput and productivity that IC Compiler II offers. We are now actively working on IC Compiler II certification for TSMC 10nm process."

"The certification of IC Compiler II on our latest, 16nm production FinFET Plus process brings our industry-leading flows and methodologies to our mutual customers at this exciting production node," commented Suk Lee, Senior Director, Design Infrastructure Marketing Division, TSMC. "Our long, ongoing and deep collaboration with Synopsys served as the solid foundation to enable this certification collaboration."