Colin Shaw of Silvaco Named Si2 Pinnacle Award Winner

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Colin Shaw, senior corporate applications engineer at Silvaco, has received the quarterly Silicon Integration Initiative Pinnacle Award, recognizing volunteers for their exceptional contributions to Si2’s success as a leading semiconductor research and development joint venture.

A chartered engineer with over 30 years of semiconductor industry experience, Shaw serves as chair of six Si2 Compact Model Coalition working groups and vice-chair of three others. His expertise includes the production and development of device processes for silicon and II-V compounds, as well as device and circuit design covering test structures, SRAM, IGBT and SAW filters.

For 25 years, CMC has offered semiconductor manufacturers, designers, and simulation tool providers an avenue to collectively fund, develop and optimize standard compact SPICE models and interfaces to promote simulation tool interoperability. CMC funds and supports select university and national laboratory compact model developers to achieve these goals.

“Colin has been a driving force within CMC since its integration with Si2 in 2013,” said John Ellis, Si2 president and CEO. “From leading the working group that created an open, industry-standard model simulator interface, to chairing our two recent gallium nitride and silicon carbide efforts, he has been a consistent coalition leader and team player. This combination of vision and commitment makes Colin truly deserving of the Si2 Pinnacle Award.”

Shaw will present at the quarterly CMC meetings scheduled for December 7-10.

About the Silicon Integration Initiative

Si2 is a leading R&D joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for IC design tools. Its primary programs include CMC and OpenAccess, the world’s most widely used open reference database for IC design, with a supporting standard APA. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws.

Hongmei Li Named IBM Representative to Si2 OpenAccess Coalition

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Hongmei Li is the new IBM representative to the Si2 OpenAccess Coalition.  Li currently manages the Product Design Enablement Group in the IBM electronic design automation organization. She replaces Paul Stabler, a long-time supporter of OpenAccess activities, who is retiring from IBM.

Over her 17-year IBM career, Li has worked on radio-frequency MOSFET and passive device models, gate resistance characterization, de-embedding methodology for RF measurement, FET local layout effect, 3D through-silicon-via stress modeling, test site macro design and test site coordination. Starting August 1, she will manage the EDA Technology Enablement & ChipBench Group.

Li received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 2004.

Si2 OpenAccess, the world’s most widely used, open-reference database for IC design, creates authentic interoperability between EDA companies and semiconductor designers and manufacturers.

Views from the Cloud: Si2 Annual Technology Forum

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The growing impact and productivity gains of designing semiconductors in the cloud comprise the focus the Si2 Annual Technology Forum, an online event scheduled for Friday, August 6, from 8:00 a.m. – to 10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Registration is free. For details click here.

Silicon Integration Initiative is an R&D joint venture providing standard interoperability solutions for semiconductor design tools. Si2’s key programs include OpenAccess, a standard application programming interface and reference source code for the design database used by all major chip design software suppliers, and the Compact Model Coalition, which selects and supports industry-standard SPICE simulation models.

AGENDA

Keynote Presentation:  Silicon-to-System – Addressing Design, Verification, and Implementation Challenges with Cloud-Based Engineering

David Pellerin
Head of Worldwide Business Development
Hitech/Semiconductor
Amazon Web Services


Executive Panel Discussion: EDA-in-the-Cloud Challenges are Already Solved by Providers

Kerim Kalafala
Senior Technical Staff Member
IBM

Ramond Rodriguez
Senior Director of Strategic CAD Capabilities
Intel

Dr. Rhett Davis
Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering
NC State University

Rajeev Jain
Senior Director of Technology
Qualcomm


Si2 Technical Coalition Updates

OpenAccess, oaScript Extensions
Marshall Tiner
Si2 Director of Production Standards

Standard Compact Models
John Ellis
Si2 President and CEO

AI/ML, Unified Power Models
Dr. Leigh Anne Clevenger
Si2 Director of OpenStandards

Special Announcement

Learn about a new Si2 industry initiative focusing on silicon-to-system design interoperability

Vic Kulkarni
Si2 Chief Strategy Officer


Annual Power of Partnerships Award

Presented to the Si2 team that has made the most significant contributions to the field of electronic design automation

 

Executives from Cadence, SK Hynix Join Si2 Board of Directors

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AUSTIN, Texas—Silicon Integration Initiative, a leading research and development joint venture providing standard interoperability solutions for semiconductor design tools, announced today the election of its board of directors for 2021-2022.

Joining the Si2 board for their first full terms are:

  • Aparna Dey, Senior Product Marketing Group Director, Cadence Design Systems
  • Do Chang-Ho, Vice President, Computer Aided Engineering Division, SK Hynix

Re-elected board members are:

  • Richard Trihy, vice president, Design Enablement, GLOBALFOUNDRIES
  • Roger Carpenter, hardware engineer, Google
  • Leon Stok, vice president, Electronic Design Automation Technologies, IBM
  • Rahul Goyal, vice president, Intel Corp., director, R&D Strategic Enablement
  • Pankaj Kukkal, vice president, EDA, Emulation and Post-Silicon Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies
  • Jung Yun Choi, corporate vice president, Electronics Design Technology, Samsung Electronics
  • Juan C. Rey, vice president of engineering, Calibre, Siemens EDA
  • David DeMaria, corporate vice president, Strategic Initiatives and Market Intelligence, Synopsys
  • Keith Green, distinguished member of the technical staff, Texas Instruments

The board elected prior board member, John Lee, general manager and vice-president, Ansys, as an ex-officio board member. Lee will advise the board with regards to Si2’s long-term strategy for design-in-the-cloud, as well as for artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled design.

The Si2 board represents leading semiconductor manufacturers and foundries, fabless companies, and EDA software providers. Si2’s key programs include OpenAccess, a standard application programming interface and reference source code for the design database used by all major chip design software suppliers, and the Compact Model Coalition, which selects and supports industry-standard SPICE simulation models.

About Si2

Founded in 1988, Si2 provides standard interoperability solutions for semiconductor design tools. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws.

 

Johannes Grad of Cadence First Si2 Pinnacle Award Winner

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Johannes Grad, product engineer at Cadence Design Systems, is the winner of the first quarterly Pinnacle Award, presented to volunteers for exceptional contributions to Si2’s success as an R&D joint venture.

A member of the Cadence Custom IC and PCS Group, Johannes focuses on OpenAccess development, supporting advanced process nodes, and software infrastructure for physical design. He is a moderator for the Si2 OpenAccess Issue Tracking System and Discussion Forum and a member of the Si2 OA Debug Working Group. Johannes has Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Marshall Tiner, director of Production Standards, said that “Johannes’ behind-the-scenes efforts are uniquely representative of the great work done by volunteers to assure OpenAccess remains the industry’s leading design database. As an essential member of the Discussion Forum, whether he’s responding to a user error or lack of product knowledge, Johannes handles every problem with professionalism and tact.  He has shown unwavering support for all members of the OpenAccess Coalition.” 

Ali Sadigh Joins Si2 Technical Team; Robert Hill Named Client Account Manager

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Ali Sadigh

Ali Sadigh, a technical professional with more than 25 years of experience in computational electromagnetics, circuit simulation and industrial data acquisition and management, has joined Silicon Integration Initiative as a principal software design engineer. Si2 also announced that Robert Hill has been named client account manager

Before joining Si2, Sadigh worked with AVEVA Group as part of the Historian high-performance process database. His efforts focused on cloud-based data subscription and other applications based on service-oriented architecture for time-series data storage, retrieval and analytics.

Sadigh began his career at Compact Software, working on the Microwave Explorer simulator. He then joined the IBM EDA group where his contributions were focused on API-driven simulations for timing, noise and power methodologies used in IBM semiconductor design. He then held a position at Cadence Design Systems, performing research and development on the Spectre AMS Designer. Sadigh received a doctorate in electrical engineering from Syracuse University in 1994.

 

Robert Hill

Hill is a senior technology sales professional with over 20 years of solution-selling experience and is the recipient of numerous industry awards and commendations. He has worked as an account executive for Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM, helping customers modernize and transform IT operations. More recently, his focus centered on multi-cloud environments.

John Ellis, Si2 president and CEO, said, “Dr. Sadigh brings valuable industry experience in design and EDA to the table, and adds critical cloud-based application experience which will help Si2 address interoperability issues for silicon-on-cloud design. The addition of Robert, with his background in both technical sales and account management, provides our members with a central point of contact for updates and opportunities about Si2 programs and services.”

 

About Si2

Founded in 1988, Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of The National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws. The Si2 international membership includes semiconductor foundries, fabless manufacturers, and EDA companies.

 

 

Intel, Microsoft, IBM Technologists Elected to Si2 OpenAccess Coalition Leadership Posts

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Raymond Rodriguez, director of Strategic CAD Capabilities at Intel, has been elected to a one-year term as
chair of the Silicon Integration Initiative OpenAccess Coalition board of directors. Ben Bowers, principal
design engineer at Microsoft, was elected OAC vice-chair. Gregory Schaeffer, senior software engineer at IBM,
was reelected as the OpenAccess Change Team co-architect.

The board manages operational decisions for OpenAccess, the world’s most widely used open reference
database for IC design. The Change Team manages OpenAccess API modifications and database implementation.

Marshall Tiner, Si2 director of Production Standards, said “Continuing engagement of industry leaders Intel,
Microsoft and IBM bodes well for the coalition’s ongoing role in advancing semiconductor design.
Ray, Ben, and Gregory each bring years of experience and expertise to the OpenAccess board and Change Team.”

Raymond Rodriguez

A 20-year Intel veteran, Rodriguez directs a team that oversees electronic design automation,
intellectual property, test and measurement, and security assurance supplier engagements.
He has been an OAC board member since 2012. His volunteer industry experience includes
general chair of the IEEE Electronic Design Process Symposium (2019-2021) and executive
committee member of the Design Automation Conference (2015-2017). Rodriguez has a BSEE
from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MBA, Executive Program, from the
W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.

 

Ben Bowers

Bowers joined Microsoft in 2018 after 11 years at Qualcomm. He is a technical lead on a
Microsoft custom circuit CAD team that focuses on all aspects of the design flow, including
PDKs, circuit design, and simulation to physical design. He earned a BSEE from Louisiana
State University and an MSEE from Mississippi State University. He also holds 25 patents
in circuit design and methodology.

 

 

Gregory Schaeffer

In his time at IBM, Schaeffer has held various development and leadership roles in
timing/noise/electrical analysis and physical design tools and holds 21 patents in
these areas. He is the architect of IBM’s Microprocessor back-end construction methodology
and has been involved with Si2 initiatives since 2009. Schaeffer earned a BS and
MS in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University in 2002.

 

 

About Si2

Founded in 1988, Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard
interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. All Si2 activities are carried out under
the auspices of The National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental
law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal
antitrust laws. The Si2 international membership includes semiconductor foundries, fabless
manufacturers, and EDA companies.

Rahul Goyal of Intel Re-elected Board Chair of Silicon Integration Initiative

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AUSTIN, Texas — Rahul Goyal, vice president and director of R&D strategic enablement at Intel, has been re-elected to a one-year term as chairman of the board of directors of Silicon Integration Initiative, a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools.

Besides Intel, other companies represented on the Si2 board are: Ansys, Cadence Design Systems, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Google, IBM, Mentor-a Siemens Business, Qualcomm Technologies, Samsung, Synopsys and Texas Instruments.

John Ellis, Si2 president and CEO, said Goyal’s re-election “provides sustained leadership as we continue to advance with our members into artificial intelligence and machine learning, 5G, and autonomous vehicles, as well as assure continuity and stability during the disruption that COVID has inflicted on our industry.”

Goyal has global responsibility at Intel for strategic sourcing, supply chain strategy, strategic collaborations, ecosystem enablement, data analytics, and capacity management related to product development across Intel’s broad product portfolio. This includes software, system and semiconductor intellectual property, product development outsourcing services, electronic measurement solutions, electronic design automation software, prototyping and verification products used in all aspects of product design, validation and technology development.

Goyal joined Intel in 1989 and has held various technical and management positions in software engineering and technology development. His previous roles there include engineering director in the Design and Technology Solutions Group, director of the integrated silicon technology roadmap development in the Microprocessor Products Group, and senior engineering manager of mask operations. Goyal holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India, and a master’s degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University in New York.

About Si2

Founded in 1988, Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of The National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws.

Si2 Announces 2020 Power of Partnerships Award Winners

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AUSTIN, Texas – Semiconductor design experts from industry and academia are this year’s winners of the Silicon Integration Initiative’s Power of Partnerships Award, recognizing the Si2 team that has made the most significant contributions to the field of electronic design automation.

Led by Jerry Frenkil, Si2 director of OpenStandards, members of the Unified Power Model Working Group are being honored for developing Si2 UPM, a system-level power modeling standard which helps designers describe, analyze, and control power consumption, critical factors in reducing overall design costs and increasing chip performance.

Honorees from the UPM Working Group are:

  • Nagu Dhanwada, senior technical staff member, IBM, Working Group Chair
  • Allen Baker, lead software developer, Ansys
  • Daniel Cross, principal solutions engineer, Cadence Design Systems
  • Rhett Davis, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NC State University
  • David Ratchkov, founder and CEO, Thrace Systems

UPM was created under the auspices of the OpenStandards Coalition, a technology incubator developing critical enabling technologies for fast-track industry approval toward standardization. Frenkil said the working group “has pioneered new methods for power modeling and analysis, leading to increased power efficiency. This has created new opportunities for system architects, SoC designers, IP providers, and EDA developers to estimate and control power consumption, especially at the system level.”

UPM led directly to the creation of the IEEE Standard for Power Modeling to Enable System Level Analysis, or IEEE 2416-2019. This standard is based almost entirely on the efforts of the UPM working group.

Each Si2 coalition nominates one team for the annual Power of Partnerships award, which spotlights the essential role volunteers from Si2 member companies play in Si2’s continuing success and value to the industry. The Si2 board of directors selects the winners.

Runners up for 2020 are:

Compact Model Coalition, Open Model Interface Working Group
Chair, Colin Shaw, Silvaco

Contributed to Si2 initially by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, OMI is built around the TSMC Model Interface. OMI allows circuit designers to simulate and analyze such significant physical effects as self-heating and aging, and to perform extended design optimizations, including statistical modeling of process variations.

OpenAccess Coalition, Polygon Operators Working Group
Chair, James Masters, Intel

The Polygon Operators Working Group develops oaxPop, an API extension used with Si2 OpenAccess, the world’s most widely used open reference database for IC design. Originally contributed to Si2 by Intel, oaxPop brings the power of the popular Boost Polygon Library into the expanding OpenAccess design database ecosystem.

About Si2

Founded in 1988, Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of The National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws.

Support for OpenAccess 22.50 Ends in June

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Effective June 1, 2020, OpenAccess 22.50 (DM5) will no longer be supported and no further source code changes will be made.

What this means for OpenAccess Coalition Members

The present OA 22.50 releases will be available for the near future, although members should consider plans to migrate to the new OpenAccess 22.60 (DM6). The migration plan is well designed as your OA 22.50 database still works in 22.60.

Should you choose to use the new data model features of OA 22.60 your database will become a DM6 database and can only be read with 22.60.

Going forward, the focus will be on the new OA22.60 data model. This includes support for C++ 11. New oaPartitions classes enable performance and portability enhancements to your applications, including parallel execution with partial loading of data.

The 4G limits have been relaxed on polygon point data and certain types of application defined data. In most cases, databases written by OA 22.60 will remain DM5/OA 22.50 compatible. OA 22.60 will only write a DM6 database if:

  • more than 4G of oaAppProp or oaPointArray data is used or,
  • oaPartitions are created

For more information contact Marshall Tiner, director of Production Standards, [email protected].