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IBM and Mentor Graphics are to jointly develop and distribute next-generation computational lithography (CL) software for the 22nm node and below, which will enable a computationally based process for production at the 22nm node. According to the partners, this will be first of its kind.

“The industry faces a critical challenge at 22nm, where traditional approaches to device scaling are no longer feasible due to the laws of physics,” said Gary Patton, vice president of IBM’s Microelectronics Division. “Instead, we have to look to computational scaling solutions to take us to the next couple of process nodes. We’re extremely excited about this unique partnership, which will allow us to deliver IBM’s preeminence in lithography process technology, algorithms, and high performance computing through the proven, market-leading Calibre nmPlatform. In the coming weeks IBM will have more to say about our plans and strategies regarding a comprehensive computational scaling (CS) ecosystem to support our strategy for computational scaling for 22nm, which we announced earlier today.”

“This partnership is the continuation of a successful relationship that has been in place since IBM and Mentor first started working together on model-based optical proximity correction (OPC) solutions for the 130nm node, and extends the collaboration we both described last February around the Cell Broadband Engine processor,” said Joseph Sawicki, vice president and general manager of the Design to Silicon Division at Mentor Graphics. “We’ve moved beyond the typical EDA customer-supplier relationship to a true joint R&D effort that will result in great benefits for our customers—not just the ability to successfully image critical features for the 22nm node, but also innovative solutions to manage turnaround time and cost of computing, which are extremely important to our customers’ overall success.”

Joint development work will take place at Mentor’s San Jose, IBM’s East Fishkill and IBM Research’s Yorktown locations.