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Cadence Collaborates With IBM to Exceed Testability Goals With Cell Broadband Engine

Posted on: Monday, 24 April 2006, 09:02 CDT

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) today announced that it has exceeded the goals set for testability and manufacturing diagnostics for the Cell Broadband Engine with the Cadence(R) Encounter(R) Test product line. The cooperation between Cadence and IBM enabled high test coverage to ensure outgoing quality and achieved lower manufacturing cost with test data compression. It also included the use of a low pin-count tester and resulted in faster yield ramp with Encounter Diagnostics.

Based on the Power Architecture(TM), the Cell Broadband Engine was developed in collaboration with IBM, Sony Corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment collectively referred to as Sony Group), and Toshiba Corporation. The Cell Broadband Engine is an advanced multi-core Power Architecture-based microprocessor optimized for compute-intensive workloads and various broadband media applications including computer entertainment, movies and other forms of digital content.

"We have worked very closely with Cadence on the test and diagnostics aspects of the Cell Broadband Engine," said Kathryn Papermaster, development director for the STI Design Center, IBM Systems & Technology Group. "Using Encounter Test, we were able to address all of the demanding test requirements of the Cell Broadband Engine, while exceeding our objectives for test coverage, test cost and diagnostics, enabling us to achieve our quality and cost goals for this product."

The Encounter Test technologies used in the Cell Broadband Engine include True-Time ATPG test with pipelined scan control to support near 4GHz operation, and OPMISR+ compression to lower cost of test and to support custom BIST for logic and memory. In addition, the flow included Encounter Diagnostics, used to accelerate yield ramp in manufacturing environments.

"The Cell Broadband Engine is a major achievement for IBM, Sony and Toshiba. It is a great honor for Encounter Test to contribute to this success," said James Miller Jr., executive vice president, Products and Technologies Organization at Cadence. "Cooperating with our leading customers in projects such as the Cell Broadband Engine helps ensure that we will continue to provide the industry with products that exceed our customers' expectations."

Cadence and IBM are members of power.org which is a community of companies driving innovation around Power Architecture technology.

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 and hardware, methodologies, and services to design and verify advanced semiconductors, printed circuit boards and systems used in consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications equipment, and computer systems. Cadence reported 2005 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, and has approximately 5,000 employees. 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.

Cadence, the Cadence logo and Encounter are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 For more information, please contact:  Judy Erkanat Cadence Design Systems, Inc. 408-894-2302 jerkanat@cadence.com

SOURCE: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

Source: MARKET WIRE

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