The Physical Verification Challenge—Mentor Graphics and Sun Microsystems Partnership Success Story

Meeting the tough EDA requirements of a discriminating IC design company such as Sun Microsystems is a challenge few toolmakers win. But the swiftness and relative ease with which Sun selected and incorporated Mentor Graphics’ Calibre physical verification tool into their design flow was unprecedented, especially considering the complexity of the project. This paper describes the technological trends facing the integrated circuit industry, Sun’s dynamic and interdependent design environment, and the successful methodology with which they sought a best of breed physical verification solution for the development of the UltraSPARC III processor. As benchmarking proved, Calibre not only satisfied the needs of UltraSPARC III project, but also gave Sun a physical verification tool that thrived within their innovative networked resource environment, the Compute Farm.