May 3, 2004 -- Magma Design Automation, Inc. announced its intent to develop a low-power RTL-to-GDSII reference flow based on its newly released Blast Power product. This solution integrates the benefits of power optimization and management into the Magma system. Leading intellectual property (IP) providers ARM and Artisan Components have agreed to allow the use of their IP products to facilitate the development of this flow with the ARM9E processor family working with Artisan's Metro Platform IP which is architected for low-power solutions.

This low-power Magma reference flow will guide designers through an RTL-to-GDSII methodology that leverages embedded low-power design and analysis capabilities of Blast Power to enable fast, optimal timing-versus-power and area-versus-power tradeoffs at different stages of the implementation flow. With the ability to address power considerations during implementation and within a single environment, designers can minimize the power consumption of the design and reduce turnaround time.

"ARM and Magma have previously worked to develop Magma-Ready IP and an RTL-to-GDSII reference implementation for the ARM9E family of microprocessors," said Tim Holden, EDA Relations manager of ARM. "We welcome this development as part of the continued drive to improve the power consumption of ARM Powered SoCs."

"In today's complex nanometer design environment, collaborative solutions from industry leaders are essential to address the challenges faced by customers," said Herb Gebhart, director of technical marketing for Artisan. "We believe that working with Magma to incorporate our Metro IP into their low-power methodology will benefit our mutual customers by offering them access to a low-power design flow tuned on a low-power IP platform."