Category: Press Release

Thalia Design Automation partners with Sofics to enhance offering for analog circuit and IP reuse

by PRPress Release

Partnership enhances market-leading Technology Analyzer with robust hardened I/Os and ESD protection options

Cologne, Germany, 16 June 2021 – Thalia Design Automation Ltd., provider of analog and mixed-signal circuit IP reuse platform, today announced a new partnership with Sofics, a leading provider of analog I/Os, specialty digital I/Os and ESD protection.

Thalia’s Technology Analyzer, part of its AMALIA platform, helps major IP houses and integrated circuit design firms determine whether or not IP is fit for purpose or suitable for cost-effective migration. This partnership means Sofics’ specialist IP portfolio will now be included in the recommended target technology candidates.

“This announcement is about the coming together of two market-leading solutions,” said Sowmyan Rajagopalan, Thalia Design Automation CTO. “This latest iteration of our Technology Analyzer uses machine-learning to rapidly compare the source and target process technologies, enabling business case and commercial modelling to be undertaken for our clients. They are then able to assess migration value before committing resource. Adding Sofics’ ESD protection and other I/Os into the target options will enable solutions to be found and implemented much more rapidly.”

“IP houses want to optimize the value of existing assets and extend portfolios through IP reuse,” said Koen Verhaege, CEO of Sofics. “Collectively, this is a solution that mitigates risk for customers when transitioning to new technology nodes. Sofics’ global reach means that we can bring a world-class technology solution to IP and IC firms.”

The AMALIA Technology Analyzer is an intuitive solution that addresses a comprehensive array of first and second order effects including FT, gm/id, Vdsat, Vt mismatches, corners, Monte Carlo mismatch impact and many others. The software integrates into several EDA design frameworks and can be customized to specific design flows.

Sofics leading I/O and ESD foundry independent IPs are adaptable to various technologies like high & low voltage, BCD, CMOS, SOI and FinFET. More than 100 fabless companies use Sofics’ solutions to enable higher performance, higher robustness while reducing design time and cost of SoC design.

Find out more about the AMALIA Technology Analyzer.

Thalia’s AMALIA Technology Analyzer de-risks Analog IP reuse for major IP houses and IC manufacturers

by Sowmyan RajagopalanPress Release

Comparing process technologies before commencing migration enables IP houses and IC manufacturers to establish the business case for targeted portfolio expansion 

Cwmbran, UK, May 18th, 2021 Thalia Design Automation, an IP reuse company and experts in the development and deployment of automation solutions for Analog & Mixed Signal IP Reuse, today announced further upgrades and enhancements to its Technology Analyzer.

 

This latest iteration of the platform means Thalia can better support IP houses to assess process technologies parameters that impact on their portfolio expansion. Much of the effort involved in migrating an IP from one technology to another is associated with qualifying the IP in the target technology. If a block fails to meet the requirements in the target technology, the IP/IC’s performance would be sub-optimal.

 

The Technology Analyzer is part of a suite of solutions offered by Thalia and sits in parallel with its AMALIA IP reuse platform. Combining the design expertise, proprietary advanced methodologies and AI embedded in the AMALIA platform with this latest upgrade to the analyzer tool, early assessments of the validity of IP migrations is easier than ever.

 

“The Technology Analyzer has always been an integral part of our unique offering to clients, and this latest iteration of the powerful tool is the next step in its evolution,” said Sowmyan Rajagopalan, Thalia Design Automation CTO. “Understanding the impact and influence of technical parameters on the migration process will always be vital to successful migrations. We’re delighted with this latest upgrade that enables business case and commercial modelling to be undertaking for our clients to assess the value in a migration before committing resource.”

 

Discussing a recent engagement with this identification of differences, Frédéric Masson, Director of Power Management Solutions at Dolphin Design, said: “We needed to migrate an existing Analog IP to a 22nm process with a tight deadline and a set of key characteristics that had to be addressed. Thalia deployed its Technology Analyzer to assess the device characteristics in the target technology and rapidly determine the best porting strategy to meet critical performances. Combined with Thalia’s AMALIA IP reuse platform, we have been able to anticipate technical issues in the porting and ease the migration within a shorter development cycle.”

 

Thalia is continuing to evolve and develop its suite of tools and platforms to deliver the best possible results for IP houses and IC manufacturers while harnessing the power of AI alongside its expert team of design engineers and advanced methodologies.

 

Download our new white paper to understand more about Thalia’s Technology Analyzer here: https://www.thalia-da.com/resources/

 

About Thalia Design Automation

Thalia Design Automation, an IP reuse company, is expert in targeted automation for analog and mixed signal design and IP reuse. Thalia’s AMALIA IP re-use platform migrates, improves and optimizes existing IP for new technologies and applications. Our customers – IP houses, Tier 1 players and foundries – can leverage the platform to re-use and diversify their product ranges quickly and cost effectively to meet ever-changing market demands. Our highly skilled design engineers and advanced methodologies combine with AMALIA’s AI algorithms to deliver outstanding efficiencies in the analysis, design and verification stages of IP re-use. The result is a reduction in development time of up to 50%, allowing our clients to react quicker and more effectively to changing market demands.

For more information visit www.thalia-da.com

Thalia Design Automation successfully delivers voltage regulator in a 22nm process node with 45% reduction in design time using its AMALIA software

by Sowmyan RajagopalanPress Release

Thalia Design Automation, a leading IP reuse company, produced a temperature invariant reference voltage to replace a bandgap within an LDO migrated to a 22nm process node, using its AMALIA software with a 45% reduction in design time for the client.

Thalia was approached by a client which needed to re-use a virtual component LDO for SoC integration.

Thalia CTO Sowmyan Rajagopalan said: “During an LDO migration to a 22nm process node, our client urgently needed to find a temperature invariant (ZTC) solution. This is typically a difficult and time-consuming process.

“However, using our unique methodology and advanced AI algorithms, we confirmed a solution in close to half the usual design time, enabling our customer to meet tough delivery deadlines.”

An ultra-low quiescent current programmable regulator is used to generate SoC internal supply for retention logic islets. It is suitable for ultra-low power loads for ultra-low leakage mobile applications, RFID active tags, medical applications, battery-powered devices, and so on.

The requirement for the internal reference was to achieve ZTC with <0.5% variation over any process corner and no more than 6% across all corners. The LDO had its own internal non-Bandgap voltage reference, which needed re-tuning for ZTC.

This is typically a very labour-intensive process over PVT corners, requiring up to a week of valuable design resources.

The Thalia team migrated the existing regulator from the original 22nm technology to the target technology, using the AMALIA platform’s schematic porting capability – this avoided the significant delays associated with employing manual techniques.

Thalia designers analysed the voltage regulator and identified the key components that required adjustment via the AMALIA Design Enabler. They also set up the rules through which the Design Enabler would operate. This enables AMALIA to efficiently and intelligently identify a circuit that meets the ZTC criteria, while minimising area.

The full case study for this project can be found at www.thalia-da.com/resources

Thalia successfully completes 20th 22nm analog IP reuse engagement

by Sowmyan RajagopalanPress Release

Successful completion of 20 analog design IP migration into 22nm technology node demonstrates a robust platform for efficient and cost-effective porting

Cwmbran, UK, 4 March 2021. Thalia Design Automation, a leading IP reuse company and experts in targeted automation for analog and mixed signal design and migration, today announced the successful completion of its 20th analog IP portfolio migration into the 22nm technology node.

This milestone demonstrates the potency of Thalia’s AMALIA platform – particularly in migrating analog IP to 22nm.  Using the AMALIA IP reuse platform, Thalia is able to reduce the number of iterations required to reuse an IP in a new technology or node. The data generated by the platform informs how similar or dissimilar the base and target technologies are, allowing Thalia to plan and drive the IP reuse process more efficiently. The result is that the process delivers solutions 30-50% more quickly than conventional approaches.

The 22nm node fits perfectly with analog and mixed-signal applications mainly for audio and power management analog IPs. Migrating to 22nm delivers significantly lower leakage and boosts performance and Thalia enables its clients to benefit from this, swiftly and efficiently migrating analog IP to the 22nm process. In doing so, they help them to leverage the power and performance benefits of the node and expand their IP portfolios cost effectively.

“This milestone is a testament to our unique approach to IP migration,” said Sowmyan Rajagopalan, Thalia Design Automation CTO. “Many companies can offer design expertise in migrating analog IPs, but our unique combination of experienced designers, targeted automation through the AMALIA platform, and advanced methodologies means migrations can be successfully completed in less time, saving our customers time and money. By reducing the cost to reuse IPs, the barrier that impacts the decision to move IPs from one technology / node to another is reduced. With an efficient IP reuse solution, more companies would be able to address the full spectrum of market opportunities; that’s what Thalia delivers.”

Thalia has applied its unique combination of experienced analog design resources and innovative automation methodology to products using a wide range of technologies and process nodes. Thalia has a proven track record of delivering designs in cutting edge applications and in advanced technologies, and in some of the industry’s most demanding application areas. Thalia’s solutions are available as a service.

Technology Analyzer transforms analog IP reuse

by Rodger SykesPress Release

A significant upgrade to Thalia’s AMALIA IP reuse platform cuts the cost of qualifying IP in a target technology. Thalia Design Automation, experts in targeted automation for analog and mixed signal design and IP reuse, today announced the launch of its Technology Analyzer, a further enhancement of its AMALIA IP reuse platform.

Much of the effort involved in migrating an IP from one technology to another is associated with qualifying the IP in the target technology. If a block fails to meet the requirements in the target technology, its response would be sub-optimal or would make the block unusable.

With traditional methods, identifying such issues can be extremely time consuming.  Thalia’s Technology Analyzer is the latest enhancement of its AMALIA IP reuse plus platform. It rapidly and accurately identifies the root cause of discrepancies between base and target technologies, allowing a solution to be implemented much more rapidly than in conventional analog IP design.

“This latest evolution of our AMALIA platform is a game changer,” said Sowmyan Rajagopalan, Thalia Design Automation CTO. “Whenever a key specification is not being met in the target technology, we have to determine the process technology or circuit characteristic responsible. By using our automated Technology Analyzer, we can take a design-centric approach to rapidly analyze and compare base and target technologies to see where the process technologies are similar and where they differ the most.”

The AMALIA Technology Analyzer addresses a comprehensive array of first and second order effects including FT, gm/id, Vdsat, Vt mismatches and others.

AMALIA’s Technology Analyzer helps clients assess whether or not IP is fit for purpose or suitable for cost-effective migration – a technology assessment solution essential in the selection of external IP and target process.

Thalia and Dolphin Design announce partnership

by Sowmyan RajagopalanPress Release

Transforming analog IP re-use economics and accelerating time to market

Advanced IP re-use plus technologies employ advanced AI algorithms and targeted automation with smart design methodology to improve outcomes and to reduce the resource costs of analog IP portfolio development

Cwmbran, UK, Grenoble, France 4th September 2020. Thalia Design Automation, experts in targeted automation for analog and mixed signal design and IP reuse, and Dolphin Design, a leading company in semiconductor IPs and  platform solutions, today announced a partnership transforming the way IP portfolios are expanded and managed, delivering new IPs to market faster and more cost-effectively than through conventional processes.

The partnership has already seen Thalia’s targeted automation platform, AMALIA, deployed alongside its experienced analog design and migration experts, to deliver power management and audio IPs supporting respectively Dolphin Design’s SPIDER and BAT platforms during the last 12 months. Thalia’s unique trifecta of design expertise, its proprietary technology analyzer and targeted automation enable project delivery up to twice as fast as a conventional design process.

The initial phase of the partnership has delivered 12 power management and audio IPs in various process nodes and flavours that enabled Dolphin Design to improve market penetration by expanding its portfolio of analog IPs using Thalia’s technology and expertise.

Philippe Berger, Dolphin Design CEO, said: “Conscious of the explosive growth in IoT, mobile and automotive, we decided to focus our in-house design teams one hundred percent on delivering innovative new IP designs for customers. Thalia’s AMALIA platform and its experts frees up our engineering resources to design future IP generations and helps us grow into new markets through a wider panel of technological nodes, as well as to consolidate our position. The partnership with Thalia allows us to expand our IP portfolio and to achieve a faster Time-to-Market, while improving our innovation capabilities.”

Sowmyan Rajagopalan, Thalia Design Automation CTO, said: “To date, our partnership with Dolphin has been hugely productive and we are excited to move on to the next phase.  Our AMALIA platform takes IP re-use to the next level – what we are calling IP re-use plus – allowing clients like Dolphin Design to benefit from cost-effective technology analysis, coupled with design and targeted automation tools that enable us to deliver specified features and performance with precision and against challenging time-to-market and cost requirements.”

About Dolphin Design 

Headquartered in France, Dolphin Design, previously known as Dolphin Integration, is a semiconductor company employing 160 people, including 140 highly qualified engineers.

They provide differentiating platform solutions built on state-of-the-art IPs and architectures, customized by unique system level utilities to deliver fast and secure ASICs, either designed by or for their clients. These platforms are available for various technological processes and optimized for Energy Efficient SoC Design.

Alongside their clients, now exceeding 500 companies, they focus on human, inventive and long-term collaboration to enable them to bring products, powered by innovative and accessible integrated circuits that minimize environmental impact, to the hands of billions of people every day. In consumer markets including IoT, AI and 5G, and in high reliability markets, they unleash SoC designer creativity to deliver differentiation.

Tell them your biggest dream. Dare the impossible. They tech it on.

Press contact: aurelie.descombes@dolphin.fr

Thalia DA attracts $2m investment to grow analog IP re-use platforms

by Sowmyan RajagopalanPress Release

Will accelerate customer engagement and expansion into USA; further broaden technology development

Thalia Design Automation today announced that it plans significant growth in its worldwide operations, following completion of a $2m (£1.52m) funding round led by Deepbridge Capital and with renewed commitment from the company’s existing investor Development Bank of Wales (formerly Finance Wales).

This latest round of funding will enable accelerated development of Thalia’s Re-use Platform-as-a-Service (RePaaS) solutions for analog IP re-use, design migration and portfolio extension, and aggressive expansion of both commercial and engineering activities in the UK, USA and continental Europe.

“Deepbridge is committed to fostering innovation and growth in businesses with truly disruptive market potential, and we believe that Thalia definitely falls into that category,” said Ray Eugeni, Partner at Deepbridge Capital. “We look forward to helping this globally-focused company fully realize the potential of its unique core technology assets, in markets across the world.”

Commenting on behalf of Thalia, Rodger Sykes, Chairman and CEO, said: “Analog design is one of the toughest challenges in the electronics industry today. I believe Thalia is creating a sea change in this key market, enabling our customers to move to an ‘IP on demand’ model, and offering cost and time schedule savings of up to 50%.”

Dr Carl Griffiths, Fund Manager at the Development Bank of Wales, commented: “Having been involved with Thalia since the early stages of its development, we’re delighted to see the fantastic progress the company has already made in the high value global technology space. Our follow-on investment in this latest funding round demonstrates our strong belief that Thalia has all of the tools to make the most of a massive market opportunity.”

As part of its continuing expansion, Thalia plans to grow its technology development capabilities in the UK and India, as well as establishing a strong presence both in Continental Europe and the USA. The company’s Re-use Platform-as-a-Service (RePaaS) solution combines an innovative methodology, advanced design automation technology and experienced analog engineering resources. It helps analog IP providers to maximize re-use of their existing product portfolio, to create new product variants quickly and easily, and to adapt their designs for manufacture using any semiconductor foundry service.

About Deepbridge Capital
Formed in 2010, Deepbridge was founded with the aim of building an investment team that could redefine the growth capital market. Its purpose is to provide reassurance to investors by enabling them to invest alongside its team of passionate, experienced and fair-minded specialists. A genuine blend of people who know what it’s like to run a business and who have a balanced approach between being good investors, strong managers and practical operators.

Deepbridge believes in supporting, mentoring and investing alongside energetic, high performance management teams. Its ambition is to help businesses achieve their full potential and thereby provide the best possible outcomes for investors.

Deepbridge promotes a culture of professional excellence and integrity: it therefore strongly encourages its investee companies to achieve the highest standards of corporate governance. Deepbridge brings value to investee companies through its proven experience of building growth businesses, involving its network of investors, technology advisors, and industry partners.

https://www.deepbridgecapital.com/

About Development Bank of Wales
The Development Bank of Wales was set up by the Welsh Government to support the economy of Wales by making it easier for businesses to get the finance needed to start up, strengthen and grow. The purpose of the Development Bank is to unlock potential in the economy of Wales by increasing the provision of sustainable, effective finance in the market.

Launched in October 2017, it is a cornerstone organisation for delivery of public sector financial products, supporting micro to medium businesses in Wales and increasing the supply of finance. It promotes economic development through an adaptable delivery model that is responsive to market needs whilst providing continued value for money for public funds. It delivers key Welsh Government policy objectives measured through performance targets and providing investment management and support services across the whole of Welsh Government.

The Development Bank of Wales invested £80m across 420 investments in the financial year 18/19, which in turn attracted £126m in private sector investment.

Media centre: www.developmentbank.wales/media

Thalia-DA unveils AMALIA analog schematic porting capability

by Sowmyan RajagopalanPress Release

Automation accelerates analog design reuse projects by up to 50%

Thalia Design Automation today introduces advanced analog schematic porting capabilities within its AMALIA analog design automation tool suite. Configured for users of TSMC, Global Foundries, UMC, SMIC, and in-house technologies of Tier 1 design companies, the AMALIA schematic porting capability is already proven in analog migration projects to achieve design time savings of up to 50%.

Sowmyan Rajagopalan, Thalia Founder and CTO, commented: “Process migration – moving IP between foundries or process nodes – is one of the biggest challenges facing analog IP providers today, and schematic porting is a key part of that process. The AMALIA schematic porting capability provides all the support an experienced analog designer needs: automating where possible, but also providing analysis and direction to make the task quicker and easier overall.”

Schematic porting is one of the key steps for designers wishing to move analog IP between different foundry providers or process nodes. Integrating with existing AMALIA design centering capabilities, the new tool suggests candidate porting solutions based on key design properties – such as device width/length; technology limitations such as minimum/maximum permissible device dimensions and area constraints; and design constraints.

As well as automating the porting process, the AMALIA Design Suite also significantly increases designer productivity by providing a detailed analysis highlighting issues that require the expertise of an experienced analog design engineer.

The AMALIA porting capability encompasses device mapping, target process rules/ constraints, algorithms for schematic layout and an error checker. It includes algorithms to maintain W/L, transconductance (gm) ratios and total capacitance and resistance values in light of area constraints. It also inspects interconnect and terminal locations, ‘rewiring’ the design to address any shorts.

The schematic porting capability has already played a key role in accelerating migration projects for a number of customers in the RF and power management sector, notably as part of Thalia’s partnership with Catena, a leading provider of radio frequency (RF) communication intellectual property (IP) for connectivity. This partnership, which leverages Thalia’s unique combination of design automation technology and analog expertise, dramatically reduces the time, cost and resources required for Catena to make its IP available in alternative foundry processes. Catena estimates savings of between 40% and 50% for recently completed migration projects.

The AMALIA analog design automation tool suite integrates with the Cadence™ analog design flow, accepting inputs via the industry-standard Component Description Format (CDF). AMALIA schematic porting tools will be commercially available in Q4 2019.

Thalia-DA and Catena confirm successful tape-outs of first analog IP re-use projects

by Sowmyan RajagopalanPress Release

Sub-40nm process migration projects delivered with dramatically reduced project cycle time

Thalia Design Automation and Catena, a leader in radio frequency (RF) communication intellectual property (IP) for connectivity, today announced successful completion of their first jointly delivered analog IP reuse projects. The two companies have worked together to migrate Catena’s WiFi and variants of Bluetooth IP including a low-power version, between multiple sub-40nm process nodes and foundry providers.

Continue reading “Thalia-DA and Catena confirm successful tape-outs of first analog IP re-use projects”

Thalia expands with new analog design engineering facility

by Sowmyan RajagopalanPress Release

 

Thalia Design Automation today announced a significant expansion of its analog design engineering capabilities, with the opening of a new engineering center in Hyderabad, India.

The new facility will initially be staffed by five experienced analog designers and EDA (electronic design automation) development engineers; based on current levels of customer demand, Thalia expects to grow this number to 25 within 12 to 18 months. The company’s expansion is driven by a recently completed funding round led by Mercia Fund Managers and Development Bank of Wales (formerly Finance Wales), which reflected the strong customer traction and future potential for its offerings in the analog design and IP space.

“Thalia’s approach to analog design represents a fundamental shift in the way analog IP is created and delivered,” said Sowmyan Rajagopalan, Thalia Founder, CEO and CTO. “Customers want to re-use their analog IP and establish more structured methodologies for analog design – just as is already the case in the digital world. Investing in a rapid growth of our engineering capabilities will allow us to really tap into that demand.”

Thalia recently announced a significant customer engagement with Catena, a leader in radio frequency (RF) communication intellectual property (IP) for connectivity. Catena used Thalia’s expertise and analog design expertise to re-engineer its IP reuse strategy, enabling it to quickly and cost-effectively performance-optimize designs, create product variants and target any process technology.

Rodger Sykes, Thalia Executive Chairman, said: “Our work with Catena shows just what is possible when analog and RF companies embrace change, and use advanced methodologies as part of their business process. We already have a number of other customer engagements in progress under non-disclosure: I believe a current of change is now running through the analog design industry.”

Thalia provides a unique combination of design automation technology, methodology and design know-how. Its solutions for RF, analog and mixed-signal technology transfer and design optimization, derivative generation and IP creation allow its customers to achieve new levels of product performance, reliability and scalability. By streamlining and rethinking their development flow using Thalia technology, integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers and IP houses can quickly and cost-effectively diversify their product range, while focusing on adding value in their designs.