Tokyo, Japan - Jan 23, 2007 – TOOL Corporation (headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, president Hideaki Hontao) today announced that LAVIS, their versatile layout platform software, has been fully deployed in the Electronic Devices Business Group of Fujitsu Limited, a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace (headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, president Hiroaki Kurokawa). LAVIS has become a standard layout platform in Fujitsu’s Electronic Devices.

Advances of semiconductor processes into the nanometer level demands a CAD tool with high-speed loading and displaying for the ever increasing size of LSI design data. It also leads to the inevitable challenge in design for manufacturability (DFM), so a standard platform tool is a necessity for providing efficiency in every phase of chip creation, including design, verification, mask making and product failure analysis. TOOL’s proprietary technology for displaying, and memory saving technology, gave birth to LAVIS as a high-speed, yet efficient tool, to display very large LSI design data. Since its first release, LAVIS has contributed to a number of chip designers and manufacturers worldwide. In addition to it being a high-speed layout viewer, LAVIS is compatible with other companies EDA tools, supports GDSII, OASIS, LEF/DEF design data, and handles various formats of mask making equipment. This benefits the users to use it, not just as a viewer, but as a standard platform for all phases to improve operating efficiency.

“With the relentless increases in LSI design data size and shrinking process parameters, there is a strong demand for a design tool that has the features of high-speed display, easy integration with our existing tools, and versatile utility throughout all processes from design through to manufacturing” said Shoji Ichino, General Manager of the Design Platform Development Division, in Fujitsu’s Electronic Devices Business Group. “LAVIS not only fulfills all these demands but has more features including supporting simple editing of large data, and high-speed node tracing. So for us it is an optimal standard layout tool. That is why we decided to use LAVIS.”

“It is an honor that Fujitsu Limited became a volume-user of our LAVIS”, said Hideaki Hontao, president of TOOL. “We are committed to keep delivering the most suitable solutions for the increasingly diverse demands of market.”
 

About LAVIS

LAVIS is a versatile layout visualization platform able to display large data at very high-speeds and supports multiple file formats. Its fast displaying and memory saving technology dramatically reduce the large data load and display time. In addition, various design data including GDSII as well as E-beam formats are supported, and easy integration with other tools allows LAVIS to be used as a "standard layout platform" across a wide range of steps in the chip flow including design, verification, mask data preparation, inspection and failure analysis.

About TOOL

TOOL is a Japanese software development company focused on the EDA sector. TOOL has a proven track record, especially in back-end design phases, of software development symbolized by its LAVIS. TOOL's long and successful experience in both commercial and custom software development guarantees to optimize customers' design environment. For more information about TOOL and its products, visit the website at http://www.tool-corp.com.

Contact:

TOOL Corporation
Asako Nakane
Marketing Group
+(81) 3-5723-8124
asako@tool.co.jp