Fresco Microchip Selects Berkeley Design Automation Analog FastSPICE(TM) and Noise Analysis Option(TM) for Single-Chip Broadcast TV Receiver
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Fresco Microchip Selects Berkeley Design Automation Analog FastSPICE(TM) and Noise Analysis Option(TM) for Single-Chip Broadcast TV Receiver

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—September 16, 2008— Berkeley Design Automation Inc., provider of Precision Circuit Analysis technology for advanced analog and RF integrated circuits (ICs), today announced that Fresco Microchip Inc., a developer of leading-edge digital/analog broadcast TV receivers has adopted the company's Analog FastSPICE circuit simulator and Noise Analysis Option device noise analyzer for verification of their nanometer-scale ICs.

"At Fresco we pride ourselves on being able to deliver high performance, superior quality products to our customers whom are addressing the growing analog-digital broadcast market," said Dr. Stephen Jantzi, director of Analog/RF Design at Fresco Microchip. "Our low-power, single-chip TV receivers require extensive complex-block characterization, full-circuit performance simulation and transistor-level noise analysis. Traditional and accelerated SPICE tools do not have the capacity, performance, and accuracy for our complex circuits. With Analog FastSPICE, we are characterizing our complex analog/RF circuits 5x-12x faster than traditional SPICE with true SPICE accuracy and are able to simulate top-level circuits. We use the Noise Analysis Option on our sigma-delta ADC, and its results correlate very well with silicon measurements."

Berkeley Design Automation tools include Analog FastSPICE circuit simulation, Noise Analysis Option device noise analyzer, RF FastSPICE periodic analyzer, and PLL Noise Analyzer. The company guarantees identical waveforms to the leading "golden" SPICE simulators down to noise floor (typically 0.1% or less) while delivering 5x-10x higher performance and 5x-10x higher capacity. It achieves this by using advanced algorithms and numerical analysis techniques to rapidly solve the full-circuit matrix and the original device equations without any shortcuts that could compromise accuracy.

Design teams from top-10 semiconductor companies to leading startups use Berkeley Design Automation tools to solve big analog/RF verification problems. Typical applications include characterizing complex blocks (e.g., PLLs, ADCs, DC:DC converters, PHYs, Tx/Rx chains) and running performance simulation of full circuits (e.g., wireless transceivers, wireline transceivers, high-speed I/O macros, memories, microcontrollers, data converters, and power converters).

"We are delighted that Fresco Microchip has selected Analog FastSPICE and Noise Analysis Option for their hybrid TV receiver verification flow," said Ravi Subramanian, president and CEO of Berkeley Design Automation. "Delivering critical semiconductors to bridge the analog-digital broadcast TV divide around the world, is a tremendous challenge involving advanced RF technologies. Fresco Microchip selection of BDA tools further validates the strong competitive advantage we provide to leading-edge designers of highly-integrated analog/ RF applications."

About Berkeley Design Automation

Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. is the recognized leader in advanced analog/RF verification. Its Precision Circuit Analysis technology combines the accuracy, performance, and capacity needed to verify GHz designs in nanometer-scale silicon. Berkeley Design Automation has received numerous awards including EDN Magazine's 2006 Innovation of the Year, the 2006 Red Herring 100 North America, and the 2007 Red Herring Global 100 Finalist. Founded in 2003, the company is funded by Woodside Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., and NTT Corporation. For more information, see http://www.berkeley-da.com.

Analog FastSPICE, Noise Analysis Option, RF FastSPICE, PLL Noise Analyzer, WaveCrave, and Precision Circuit Analysis are trademarks and Berkeley Design is a registered trademark of Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.



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