Paris, - 28 March 2000 - Organisations active in sub-micron design of complex IP blocks for Multimedia/Telecom applications could win free prototyping, packaging and testing of their design, under a new competition run by EUROPRACTICE.

The contest, designed to promote global research and development in deep submicron CMOS technologies, has been launched by EUROPRACTICE partner IMEC, UMC and Virtual Silicon Technology (VST).   UMC is providing EUROPRACTICE with its 0.25µ CMOS technology, Virtual Silicon is providing its eSiliconTM standard cell library and IMEC is organising MPW runs in UMC 0.25µ CMOS within the context of its EUROPRACTICE IC Service.

Various CAD and IP vendors have agreed to sponsor the contest and will have a vote in the judging process.  They will also be able to contact contest participants to discuss commercialisation of potentially interesting IP blocks.

Entries will be considered for the design of complex IP blocks for Multimedia/Telecom applications such as digital frequency converters, rake receiver structures, equalizers, FFT/IFFT structures, forward error encoders/decoders, DSPs, low-noise amplifiers and power amplifiers.

Competition entrants must deliver a simulated netlist and a design report by 1 February 2001.  Although it is not mandatory to have the design prototyped, participants are invited to implement the synthesised netlist as an FPGA or as an ASIC layout.

A panel of judges from EUROPRACTICE and the sponsors will evaluate the entries and determine the winning designs upon the following criteria : choice and ingenuity of the IP block, clarity of the deliverables, design methodology, test strategy for re-use and portability of the IP block to other technologies.  Contest winners will be announced at DATE (Design, Automation and Test Europe), 2001.

“This design contest is unique in the way that it offers research groups a chance to present their advanced designs without first having to go to prototyping,” said Dr. Carl Das, director of EUROPRACTICE IC Service at IMEC.  “It will stimulate universities that have no history of going through a process of manufacturing and test to get involved.  Finally, we hope that some good designs will find their way to commercialisation.”

Full details of the contest are available at : http://www.imec.be/europractice/2000design_contest

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About EUROPRACTICE

Europractice is a European Union initiative to improve the competitiveness of European industry by the adoption of advanced electronics technologies. Europractice is open to industrial companies (especially SMEs), research institutes and academic users.

Further information is available at: www.europractice.com/

About IMEC

IMEC today is the largest independent microelectronics research and development center in Europe. Founded by the Flemish Government in 1984, IMEC is located in Leuven, Belgium. It employs over 900, mostly scientists and engineers, while collaborating with a large number of leading-edge companies and R & D organisations world wide.

IMEC performs scientific research which runs 3 to 10 years ahead of industrial needs, with a view to practical applications. The R&D activities are concentrated on the development of novel design methodologies for monolithic as well as multi-chip systems and ATM, the development of processing technologies for the next generation of ULSI chips, microsystems, sensors, solar cells, multi-chip modules, optoelectronic components, etc., and the support of the training of VLSI design engineers on behalf of both educational institutes and industry.  IMEC is leading the EUROPRACTICE consortium offering low cost access to ASIC prototyping and small volume fabrication.

IMEC’s annual budget is about 90 million US dollars.

For further information:

Dr. Carl Das

EUROPRACTICE IC Service

Tel:  +32 16 28 12 48

e-mail : Carl.Das@imec.be or visit www.imec.be/europractice.

Marianne Van den Broeck

Public Relations & Marketing Communications Manager - IMEC

Tel: +32 16 28 14 91

Fax: +32 16 28 16 37

e-mail : marianne.vandenbroeck@imec.be or visit www.imec.be/