Mentor Graphics has introduced a version of its optical proximity correction (OPC) tool which the company says expands its Calibre line of resolution enhancement technology (RET) products for sub-65nm process technologies.

Calibre nmOPC allows dense simulation, process window optimized OPC, a hybrid computing platform utilizing co-processor acceleration with the Cell BE processor, a new compact resist process modeling capability, design-intent aware correction algorithms, and OASIS formatting to minimize output file size, the company said.

In addition, the new tool contains streamlined hierarchical processing to improve run time and file size compared to flat OPC tools, a progress meter and dynamic CPU allocation capability to manage TAT in a production environment, Mentor said.

Calibre nmOPC also allows remote acceleration simulation (RAS) architecture, which the company said enables the option of connecting a coprocessor acceleration cluster with an Ethernet connection to an existing compute cluster. Mentor also touted the "coprocessor acceleration" that can be provided by the use of the tool coupled with Mercury Computer's dual cell-based blade, which was rolled out last year.
 
Both Mentor's nmOPC and Mercury's dual cell-based blade are available now.

Mentor and Mercury also announced this week that they have inked a strategic agreement to jointly develop and deliver a fully integrated electronic design automation (EDA) platform. The platform is based on the cell broadband engine (BE) processor developed originally by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba for Sony's PS3 video game console and other consumer electronics devices. Cell BE technology, which has received positive attention in Europe recently received a push forward in the U.S. with the debut of the first Sony-Toshiba-IBM Cell BE "center of competence" at Georgia Tech.