Agilent Technologies And IBM Collaborate On Silicon Germanium Software Design Kit
PALO ALTO, Calif. (October 12, 1999) – Agilent Technologies, a new company formed from the realignment of Hewlett-Packard Company, and IBM today announced a cooperative effort to speed the development of integrated circuits (ICs) used in communications products such as mobile phones.
The two companies have collaborated on a design kit to enable HP’s Advanced Design System (ADS)(1) software, which is widely used in radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal circuit development, to work with IBM’s silicon germanium (SiGe) technology — a process optimized for developing chips that can offer the high performance and the low power consumption required by communications gear.
“Today’s IC designers are under intense pressure to bring their products to market, demanding accurate prediction of the performance of their designs to eliminate the need for prototypes,” said Jake Egbert, general manager of Agilent’s EEsof electronic design automation (EDA) product group. “They need accurate, fast simulators and good RF models for the semiconductor foundry processes they have selected. Our work with IBM provides our customers with access to this combination of leading-edge simulation and IC process technology that will help them achieve their performance and time-to-market objectives.”
By providing accurate, state-of-the-art design models for chips based on IBM’s SiGe technology, the kit is expected to enable designers to produce high-performance communications chips via a shorter development cycle.
“Our customers demand a complete menu of design and manufacturing resources in order to take full advantage of IBM’s advanced process technologies, such as SiGe,” said Michael Concannon, vice president of wireless communications at IBM Microelectronics. “By offering a specialized design kit that works with HP’s ADS software, we can enable customers to quickly develop and differentiate semiconductor products for communications applications.”
IBM’s SiGe is a process technology in which the standard silicon-integrated circuit base is augmented with germanium to make the chips operate much faster with decreased power consumption. SiGe chips can be designed for use in a range of wired and wireless products, boosting the performance while reducing the size and power usage of these products. In addition, SiGe provides increased integration capabilities, enabling designers to build chips with more functions.
Since its introduction in October 1998, IBM’s SiGe technology has been adopted by a wide range of companies for a variety of applications, including RF components in cellular handsets and transmitter and receiver chipsets used in high-speed fibre-optic phone lines.
Source: IBM