Berkeley Design Automation's Analog FastSPICE(TM) Selected By Next-Generation Japanese...

Berkeley Design Automation's Analog FastSPICE(TM) Selected By Next-Generation Japanese Supercomputer Project For 45nm Verification

Tool to Verify Complex Analog and Mixed-Signal Blocks on MDGRAPE-4
Project
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Berkeley Design Automation Inc., provider of Precision Circuit
Analysis(TM) technology for advanced analog and RF integrated circuits
(ICs), today announced that the company's Analog FastSPICE(TM) circuit
simulator has been selected for complex analog and mixed-signal block
verification in a next-generation 45nm supercomputer chip developed by
the University of Tokyo and RIKEN.

"Berkeley Design Automation verification tools are critical to the
success of our next generation 45nm supercomputer project," said
Professor Takashi Ikegami of the University of Tokyo. "Analog
FastSPICE delivered accuracy that is as good or better than
traditional SPICE 5x-10x faster on our complex analog and mixed-signal
blocks. Since we cannot rely on digital fastSPICE approximations for
these designs, Analog FastSPICE enables us to perform verification
tasks that were previously impossible."

"Analog FastSPICE is allowing us to verify our analog and
mixed-signal blocks faster than we thought possible," said Duraid
Madina, also of the University of Tokyo. "Analog FastSPICE is not only
faster and more accurate than our other SPICE tools - it is faster
than digital fastSPICE tools that cannot handle our mixed-signal
designs. In our testing, Analog FastSPICE was often 10x faster than
the best traditional SPICE, while giving identical results. We never
observed a difference greater than 0.15%."

Berkeley Design Automation tools include Analog FastSPICE(TM)
circuit simulation, RF FastSPICE(TM) periodic analyzer, and PLL Noise
Analyzer(TM). The company guarantees identical waveforms to the
leading "golden" SPICE simulators down to noise floor (typically 0.1%
or less) while delivering 5x-10x higher performance and 5x-10x higher
capacity. It achieves this by using advanced algorithms and numerical
analysis techniques to rapidly solve the full-circuit matrix and the
original device equations without any shortcuts that could compromise
accuracy.

Design teams from top-10 semiconductor companies to leading
startups use Berkeley Design Automation tools to solve big analog/RF
verification problems. Typical applications include characterizing
complex blocks (e.g., PLLs, ADCs, DC:DC converters, PHYs, Tx/Rx
chains) and running performance simulation of full circuits (e.g.,
wireless transceivers, wireline transceivers, high-speed I/O macros,
memories, microcontrollers, data converters, and power converters).

"We are delighted and honored to be selected by the consortium as
the circuit simulator of choice for the 45nm MDGRAPE-4 supercomputing
chip," said Ravi Subramanian, president and CEO of Berkeley Design
Automation. "Our selection by this distinguished team is once again
proof that Berkeley Design Automation's Precision Circuit Analysis(TM)
technology is essential for success in nanometer analog/RF design."

About Berkeley Design Automation

Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. is the recognized leader in
advanced analog/RF verification. Its Precision Circuit Analysis
technology combines the accuracy, performance, and capacity needed to
verify GHz designs in nanometer-scale silicon. Berkeley Design
Automation has received numerous awards including EDN Magazine's 2006
Innovation of the Year, the 2006 Red Herring 100 North America, and
the 2007 Red Herring Global 100 Finalist. Founded in 2003, the company
is funded by Woodside Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., and NTT Corporation. For more
information, see www.berkeley-da.com.

Analog FastSPICE, RF FastSPICE, PLL Noise Analyzer, WaveCrave, and
Precision Circuit Analysis are trademarks and Berkeley Design is a
registered trademark of Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. Any other
trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their
respective owners.

PR for Berkeley Design Automation
Cayenne Communication LLC
Michelle Clancy, 252-940-0981
michelle.clancy@cayennecom.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008