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Laker³ Custom Design Platform

The Laker^3™ Custom Design Platform is a unified front-to-back environment for custom circuit design and layout. It delivers a complete platform for analog, mixed-signal, and custom digital design and layout that is optimized for performance and interoperability for 28-nanometer (nm) and below design flows.

Most Widely-Used Interoperable Custom Design Flow

Based on the industry standard OpenAccess (OA) database, and with full support for interoperable physical design kits (iPDK), the Laker³ platform is the latest generation of the industry’s most widely-used interoperable custom design flow. Thousands of users depend on Laker^™ as their mainstream custom design platform, including engineers at leading fabless semiconductor companies, merchant foundries and integrated device manufacturers.

The Laker³ platform provides unparalleled interoperability and an open environment that enables companies to incorporate best-in-class third-party tools for analog simulation, physical verification, extraction and much more. This open system provides:

Compatibility with legacy design tools – view/edit schematics or layouts created with other OA-based
Integration with Calibre RealTime – sign-off quality design rule checking in real time with Mentor Graphics Calibre during Laker layout editing
Complete support for parameterized devices written in open standard languages such as Python, Tcl or C++

Laker³ Infrastructure

The Laker³ platform is built on a performance-driven infrastructure with ultra-fast drawing capabilities, and 2-10X faster read/write operations compared to other custom design tools. It is built on a unified binary executable that combines design entry, custom layout, custom digital place-and-route, and analog prototyping tools into a single environment. This enables passing of design intent between tools and makes it easy to communicate design changes. The platform employs a modern graphical user interface (GUI) based on QT with modern features such as tabbed windows, one-click open for recently closed designs, and configurable dockable window configurations that can be saved and restored.

Laker³ Tools

The Laker³ environment includes tools for design entry, analysis, and layout including:

Laker Advanced Design Platform
Laker Custom Layout System
Laker Custom Digital Place and Route
Laker Analog Prototyping Tool

Laker Advanced Design Platform

The Laker Advanced Design Platform (ADP) integrates the full-featured Laker schematic editor, open simulation console and waveform analyzer into a single circuit design environment. It provides integration of most analog simulators to supply a complete solution for the design of analog, mixed-signal, RF, memory, and custom digital IC designs.

Laker Custom Layout System

The Laker Custom Layout System provides rule-driven and schematic-driven layout features for generating full custom layouts in a much shorter time than manual layout methods. Its controllable automation technology simplifies the layout process while reducing verification and debug efforts.

Laker Custom Digital Place and Route

The Laker Custom Digital Place and Route tools provide unique automation for placement and routing of digital custom and standard cells within the LakerCustom Layout System. It allows precise design of the digital blocks used in mixed-signal, memory, and custom digital integrated circuits while allowing layout designers to stay in their familiar custom design environment.

Laker Analog Prototyping Tool

The Laker Analog Prototyping tool automates the placement of analog devices. This improves layout productivity and provides designers with fast feedback of layout dependent effects. It has built-in understanding of analog layout requirements, so it is much easier to adopt and deploy than competing analog automation tools.