The LEF data model for physical cell descriptions will accelerate this effort. The goal of OLA is to accelerate the availability of a single library standard across the entire silicon design flow. The industry has needed a physical library standard for many years, said Nancy Nettleton, ASIC design technology manager for Sun Microsystems. A physical library standard will simplify library and EDA flow development as well as the design of integrated circuits by systems companies. The progress that has been achieved with OLA, coupled with Si2 s strong ties to both the EDA and ASIC communities, make Si2 well positioned to bring this to fruition.
Today marks an industry milestone.
Our commitment to open standards and interoperability is always, and has always been, driven by customer requirements. The industry-wide use of our LEF data model, and now the ASIC Council s adoption of LEF for OLA, is strong testimonial. We encourage other EDA vendors to make this same pledge of full and equal access to their de facto formats. Making proprietary technology, including source code and formats, available as the basis for a standard benefits the whole industry, said John Harrington, general manager, VLSI Design Systems Lab at Lucent Technologies. The ASIC Council created the OLA effort because we realized that current library formats would not solve the issues that were occurring at 0.18 micron and below, stated Thomas Daniel, vice president of ASIC Technology for LSI Logic.