We have noticed that when a person enters into the ASIC industry, He/She comes across various EDA tools of different EDA companies. It’s natural for experienced professionals that the name of tools/company easily gets remembered, but for the freshers, they often forget the name because it’s new for them. It has also been noticed that in interviews sometimes interviewers ask the tool’s name on which candidate has worked just to get the idea that which areas they have explored. Although remembering the tool’s name does not define the level of intelligence of the candidate but of course, if you are not able to tell the name of the tools on which you have worked, will not give a good impression before the interviewer. It is always good to keep some information beyond your initial experience. For example, one might have worked only one STA tool say primeTime, but it’s good to know what are other tools being used in Industry.
This article will let you know the major EDA tools which are being widely used in the ASIC industry for different purposes. Each tool has some specialty over others but that is not a part of this article. We are not going to compare them. Here we will learn the popular tools used in ASIC Industries for various purposes and their company name.
Kidly note that there are only a handful of EDA companies exists in the industry because If we look over the history of EDA company, we will find that there are lots of mergers and acquisitions had happened in this sector in past. Many new companies have come with their new innovative tool in past but somehow those have been acquired by the big players of this sector, and finally, the number of major EDA companies in the industry is very handful namely Cadence Design System, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics (now Siemens) and few more.
Here we will categorize the major tools and their vendor as per their utility. I request to my readers there are lots of updates going on, many new tools beings launched every year, Therefore if I missed something important keep adding those in the comments, I will keep updating the list.
| Purposes | Tool | company |
| RTL Simulations | VCS | Synopsys |
| Xcelium | Cadence Design System | |
| NC-Sim | Cadence Design System | |
| QuestaSim |
Mentor Graphics (Now Siemens)
|
|
| ModelSim |
Mentor Graphics (Now Siemens)
|
|
| ISE Simulator | Xilinx | |
| Incisive | Cadence Design System | |
| RTL Signoff | SpyGlass | Synopsys |
| JasperGold | Cadence Design System | |
| Logic Synthesis | Fusion Compiler (RTL-to-GDSII solution) | Synopsys |
| Design Compiler | Synopsy | |
| Genus Synthesis Solution | Cadence Design System | |
|
RTL Compiler (upgraded to Genus)
|
Cadence Design System | |
| LEC | Conformal | Cadence Design System |
| Formality | Synopsys | |
| Place and Route | Innovus | Cadence Design System |
| IC Compiler (ICC) | Synopsys | |
| Encounter (upgraded to Innovus) | Cadence Design System | |
| RC Extraction | Quantus RC Extraction | Cadence Design System |
| StarRC | Synopsys | |
| STA | primeTime | Synopsys |
| Tempus | Cadence Design System | |
| Tweaker |
Dorado (Now a part of Synopsys)
|
|
| Encounter Timing System (ETS) | Cadence Design System | |
| IR Analysis | Voltus | Cadence Design System |
| RedHawk | Ansys | |
| Pyhsical Verification (Fill, DRC, LVS, Antenna, PERC) |
Calibre |
Mentor Graphics (Now Siemens)
|
| IC Validator | Synopsys | |
| Pegasus | Cadence Design System | |
|
PVS (Physical Verification System)
|
Cadence Design System | |
| Power simulation | Jules | Cadence Design System |
There are some other useful tools here.
| Tools | Used for | Company Name |
| OrCAD | PCB Design, Digital Design | Cadence Design System |
| Spectre | SPICE Simulation | Cadence Design System |
| HSPICE | SPICE Simulation | Synopsys |
| Virtuoso | Schematic and Layout Editor | Cadence Design System |
| Custom Designer | Schematic and Layout Editor | Synopsys |
| Abstract | Abstract generation (.lef) | Cadence Design System |
| Custom Waveview |
Waveform viewer of simulated result
|
Synopsys |
|
Sentaurus SDevice
|
Device Simulator | Synopsys |
|
Sentaurus SProcess
|
Processes editor | Synopsys |
| Sentaurus Sedit | GUI of device editor | Synopsys |
| Svisual |
visual tool for device and waveform
|
Synopsys |
| 3D TCAD | 3D Device simulation | Synopsys |
| Silvaco TCAD | TCAD Tool | Silvaco |
| ICCAP | Device characterization/Testing | KeySight |
| Liberate | Library characterization (.lib) | Cadence Design System |
| LT Spice | A free SPICE simulator | Linear Technology |
Thank You!
If you feel, Something important is missing from this list, feel free to comment.