Date: 08/11/2012

Cadence tapes out 14-nm ARM Cortex-M0 test-chip using IBM’s FinFET process

Cadence Design Systems has taped out 14-nanometer test-chip featuring an ARM Cortex-M0 processor implemented using IBM’s FinFET process technology. SRAM memory blocks and other blocks were also included that provide the characterization data necessary for foundation IP development for FinFET-based ARM Artisan physical IP.

"This chip represents a major milestone for advanced node process technology, achieved through tight collaboration among experts at the three companies,” said Chi-Ping Hsu, senior vice president, Silicon Realization Group at Cadence. “FinFET designs offer significant advantages to the design community, but also require advanced foundry support, IP and EDA technology to meet the considerable challenges. Cadence, IBM and ARM are collaborating to address these challenges and develop an ecosystem that can support 14-nanometer FinFET development for a broad range of production designs.”

“Each move to smaller geometry brings new challenges that require deep collaboration among ecosystem leaders in the SoC design chain,” said Dipesh Patel, vice president and general manager, Physical IP Division at ARM. “With 14-nanometer design, many of these challenges center on FinFETs, and our work with Cadence and IBM has focused on answering the key questions about how to make 14-nanometer FinFET design viable and economically feasible.”

“The tapeout of this 14-nanometer test chip is the culmination of the significant progress we have made with FinFET on SOI utilizing it's built in dielectric isolation,” said Gary Patton, vice president of IBM Semiconductor Research and Development Center. “In fact, Cadence and ARM have collaborated on a design solution to tape out this test chip based on IBM’s FinFET technology. We continue to collaborate to deliver on the promise of superior power, performance, and variability control of fully depleted SOI FinFET devices at 14 nanometers and beyond.”

The chip was implemented using the Cadence Encounter Digital Implementation (EDI) System with ARM 8-track 14-nanometer FinFET standard cell libraries designed with Cadence Virtuoso tools.