Product Briefing Outline: Numetrics Management Systems has launched ‘NMX-ERP’ 3.0, its next-generation suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for integrated circuit (IC) development organizations. The new software significantly extends the company’s top-down project planning and risk measurement capabilities, handling chips designed in nodes down to 45nm. 

Problem: Starting a new complex IC design project is a risky proposition. The stakes have never been higher - development costs will soar into the millions, the project will consume valuable engineers for perhaps 18 months or more, revenue from volume shipments remains years in the future, and the market window is narrow. A misjudgment in the schedule or staffing plan can be disastrous, especially in today's ultra-competitive environment. According to Numetrics, the semiconductor industry misses product development 89 percent of the time, with the average design taking six to nine months longer than anticipated.

Solution: NMX-ERP Release 3.0 includes a range of new features. A Complexity Calculation Engine leverages in-depth data mining of past generations of process technology nodes to establish a quantitative relationship between process node maturity and chip design complexity. The engine is calibrated on Numetrics’ industry database of 1200 IC projects and support design styles including SoC, analog and mixed-signal, RF, ASICs, ASSPs, and advanced processors. The Project Plan Synthesis engine generates estimates of duration and staffing required in each major phase of the IC development cycle. Users can perform “what-if” simulation on each phase, modulating either the duration or staffing to see the impact on the other. NMX-ERP 3.0 now offers enterprise-wide integration options for collecting, reporting, and archiving customers’ valuable project data. With the newly released XML schema, engineers are able to exchange data between NMX-ERP 3.0 and their internal systems. A new Java-based, rich-client, graphical user interface further enhances the usability of Numetrics tools. Dozens of new features were added in this release to allow users to customize reporting and viewing of the data.

Applications: IC design project planning to the 45nm node.

Platform: NMX-ERP incorporates a new client graphical user interface, a new project plan synthesis engine, an XML interface to integrate with other enterprise tools, and Numetrics’ eighth generation IC (Integrated Circuit) design complexity calculation engine. Pricing typically ranges from $35,000 to $95,000 per IC project, depending on the project’s complexity and size.

Availability: March 2008 onwards.