MICROELECTRONIC SYSTEMS NEWS



FILENUMBER: 531
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cascade university program epoch
END_KEYWORDS
DATE: september 1996
TITLE: Cascade University Program



Cascade University Program

(Adapted from the Cascade's WWW site)

Cascade Design Automation develops a suite of design tools called
Epoch  that  is  used  in  designing high-speed, high-performance
ASIC's. The Epoch product line offers these following features:

* Combines integrated physical design with automatic buffer sizing,
  automatic power rail sizing, and accurate simulation model generation.
* Supports VERILOG, VHDL, Synopsys and EDIF hardware description
  languages.
* Runs on HP, SUN, and Solaris workstations.

Epoch enables more flexibility in optimizing designs and requires
less  implementation effort. This is done without the involvement
of a foundry in the design process.

Epoch supports a variety of CMOS  and  GaAs  processes,  many  of
which are available through MOSIS including:

HP's cmos14B (0.6um); 
HP's cmos26G (0.9um); 
HP's cmos34 (1.2um); 
ORBIT's 1.2um N-well (1.2um); 
ORBIT's 2.0um N-well (2.0um); 
Vitesse's HGaAsIII (0.6um). 

Epoch's patented, design-rule driven methodology  enable  CMOS  &
GaAs  designs  to  be created that rival hand-layout density. Re-
targetting a completed design to an alternative process is a  re-
latively  managable  procedure  requiring only a few days to com-
plete.

It is Cascade's policy to provide the Epoch tool  suite  free  of
charge  to  qualified  educational institutions. Cascade believes
that the non-commercial use of this system in an educational  en-
vironment will benefit students, the school, and the community.

Cascade software is installed in over 80 educational institutions
throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The software has been
beneficial in providing CAD support for basic research  projects.
Students using the Epoch tools have been consistent winners in an
annual student VLSI Design contests.

To receive a software grant from  Cascade,  an  institution  must
certify that the donated software will not be used for commercial
design work or commercial chip development. The institution  must
also show that it has a workstation with adequate resources.

If interested in receiving a software grant from Cascade,  please
direct requests to:

     Richard E. Oettel
     Chief Scientist
     3650 131st Ave SE
     Bellevue, WA 98006          
	 TEL: 206-643-0200
     FAX: 206-649-7600
     univinfo@cdac.com
	 WWW

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