May 14, 2012 -- The Interoperable PDK Libraries (IPL) Alliance announced today that X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG has joined the IPL Alliance. X-FAB is making interoperable process design kits (iPDKs) available for its most popular foundry processes ranging from 0.6 to 0.13micrometers.

"After extensive evaluation, we decided to join the IPL Alliance, adopt the iPDK standard and provide our customers with X-FAB iPDKs," said Thomas Ramsch, Director of Design Support at X-FAB. "We believe the standardization of PDKs can significantly lower the cost and reduce the effort for analog IP migration. By next month, X-FAB will be able to deliver iPDKs, for all supported EDA tools that work with the OpenAccess database, four times faster than before."

"iPDKs are proven and provide semiconductor foundries significant benefits such as reducing PDK development and validation time, lowering support and distribution costs and enabling advanced design flows and multiple EDA tool support," said Jingwen Yuan, President of the IPL Alliance and Strategic Alliance Manager at Synopsys.