Cadence Pushes OpenAccess

The manufacturer says . . .

Murray Disman says . . .

Cadence Issues an Open Letter to EDA Company Leaders—Now is the Time to Step Up and Support OpenAccess SAN JOSE, Calif.--Jan. 13, 2003 Dear Colleagues: In my open letter of May 2002, I called on all EDA companies to support the creation of an open, interoperable infrastructure among databases. We at Cadence are excited to report great progress of this open, industry-standard database and API for true design-tool interoperability. With support of OpenAccess Coalition members, we are also proposing structural and procedural changes within the Coalition to accelerate support of OpenAccess by other EDA companies. OpenAccess technology met or exceeded customer expectations during extensive beta testing at the end of 2002. On schedule, Cadence delivered the code to the OpenAccess Coalition, which, on January 8, 2003, released OpenAccess version 2.0. It is available for downloading at no cost from www.OpenEDA.org. OpenAccess version 2.0 provides the infrastructure needed to meet the technological requirements for nanometer IC design. OpenAccess features high capacity, high performance, and supports both digital and analog/mixed-signal content. It also supports both 32- and 64-bit platforms and thread-safe C++ architecture. In addition, it uniquely offers extensibility and concurrent processing of data. Applications ported to OpenAccess are showing orders-of-magnitude improvement in performance and capacity compared with existing design databases. When leveraging the OpenAccess data format, significant reductions of data exchange cycle times and file sizes are achieved. This technology has realized its intent: to be the ideal interoperable environment for companies to develop advanced capabilities for their customers. With tested, proven code now available, we are focused on making it even easier for EDA vendors to step up and support OpenAccess. To gain broader industry participation, we support accelerating the date—from the end of 2004 to now—on which Cadence allows the OpenAccess Change Management Committee to take full control of code and feature changes, and upgrades. We also recommend expanding this committee by adding a third architect, and invite Synopsys to fill this position to help drive this crucial industry effort. All of us in EDA and electronics know that no single company can solve all the challenges of nanometer design. By collaborating on OpenAccess, we can build better bridges between databases on the way to delivering a truly open, interoperable design infrastructure. I sincerely invite your companies to join Cadence and the other Coalition members in the drive to achieve interoperability among databases. Sincerely, Lavi Lev Cadence Design Systems, Inc. Member of the OpenAccess Coalition More information and the OpenAccess Version 2 code are available at www.OpenEDA.org.

Cadence is doing its best to foster the widespread use of the OpenAccess database format and API. This work is based on Cadence's original contribution of its Genesis database technology to the OpenAccess Coalition, which operates under the Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2). The primary concessions is the open letter is that Cadence has relinquished control over the Change Management Committee, giving it full control of code and feature changes, and upgrades. In addition, the letter invites Synopsys to become the third architect and member of the Change Management Committee. The other committee architects are from a user and Cadence. These moves should eliminate most of Synopsys' objections to the procedures being used by the OpenAccess Coalition. However, Synopsys' main concern is maintaining the viability and support of the Milkyway database that is in extensive use by the designers using the Avant! (now part of Synopsys) back-end tools. Synopsys has said it will divulge plans for opening the Milkyway database in January. One possibility is that Milkyway and other databases could run under the OpenAccess API. Cadence is starting to release tools based on the new data format, and claims substantial improvements and reduced memory requirements. However, the greatest benefit of widespread adoption of OpenAccess would be the interoperability of tools from different vendors. It would also ease the development burden for these vendors.

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