July 10, 2006 08:00 ET

Aprio and Pyxis Technology Collaborate on Lithography-Aware DFM Router

Pyxis' DFM Router Leverages Aprio's DFM View™ to Improve Yield, Predictability and Performance

SANTA CLARA, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- July 10, 2006 -- Aprio Technologies Inc. and Pyxis Technology announced today the integration of Aprio's newly announced Halo™-Quest and associated DFM View into the advanced DFM-routing technology from Pyxis. This collaboration allows for a dramatic reduction in performance robbing lithography hot spots, such as inadequate contact enclosure and line end shortening, thus improving overall yield. (See related press announcement dated July 10, 2006: "Aprio's Halo-Quest Yields Highly Accurate Silicon Image Data.")

"Pyxis is developing new-to-the-industry routing tools that are designed from the ground up with nanometer manufacturability in mind," said Naeem Zafar, president and chief executive officer of Pyxis Technology. "The ability to access Aprio's DFM View gives us the information we need to optimize timing, performance and yield during routing to meet the customer's target manufacturing process."

"We are delighted to be working with Pyxis. Their advanced DFM router is the perfect vehicle to validate Aprio's DFM View strategy," said Mike Gianfagna, president and chief executive officer of Aprio Technologies. "Pyxis' choice of OpenAccess has also made the integration of Halo-Quest substantially easier for both companies. This standard holds great promise to accelerate the introduction of new EDA technology."

The integration between the Pyxis DFM router and Halo-Quest is accomplished through OpenAccess, a Silicon Integration Initiative, Inc. (Si2)-sponsored interoperability standard for EDA tool integration. "The vision of OpenAccess is to facilitate the introduction of new tools for the EDA customer base," said Steve Schulz, president and CEO of Si2. "The work being done by Aprio™ and Pyxis is a perfect example of how to leverage the standard to get products to market more rapidly."

The combined solution from Pyxis and Aprio will allow SoC designers to improve the yield, predictability and performance of their designs without the need to learn complex lithography processing steps. The details of these processing steps are embedded in the application -- the designer interacts with the tool in familiar terms, such as routing completion and timing statistics.

An initial technology demonstration will be provided in Pyxis' booth (2323) at this year's Design Automation Conference, to be held at San Francisco's Moscone Center from July 24 through 27, 2006.

Through a series of announcements today, Aprio is also unveiling its roadmap for delivering a comprehensive DFM solution that spans both manufacturing and design applications. Aprio's approach takes aim at the inadequate communication that exists today between integrated circuit design and manufacturing teams. By partnering with key suppliers in the design-to-manufacturing chain, Aprio plans to enable improvements in chip predictability, performance and yield with minimal impact to current design and manufacturing workflows.

About Aprio

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Aprio Technologies Inc. is a leader in design-for-manufacturability (DFM) solutions that ensure successful design and fabrication of nanometer technology semiconductors. At the core of Aprio's offerings is its unique capability to provide correct and accurate information; to designers about manufacturing issues, and to manufacturing engineers about design intent. Aprio's products leverage this capability to help our customers create more reliable and better yielding semiconductors without the need for dramatic changes to their existing design or tapeout flows. For more information, visit Aprio's Web site at www.aprio.com or call +1(408) 855-8088.

About Pyxis

Pyxis Technology is creating software to address the problems that chip designers and foundries face in the physical design, layout, and routing of nanometer-scale integrated circuits (ICs) and systems on a chip (SoCs). The company is focused on DFM routing technology based on a new software architecture optimized for design for manufacturability, which reduces design closure cycle time while improving overall design yield. For more information, see www.pyxistech.com. Pyxis has offices in Santa Clara, California and Austin, Texas.