The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →On October 2, 2024, Siemens Digital Industries Software announced that GlobalFoundries (GF) had certified Siemens’ Analog FastSPICE (AFS) for four GF process-design kits (PDKs): 22FDX, 22FDX+, 12LP and 12LP+. This is a simulator-to-foundry qualification announcement—not a new manufacturing venture, a jointly fabricated chip or an independent performance test.
What the certification covers
GF certified Siemens AFS for use with the PDKs for 22FDX, 22FDX+, 12LP and 12LP+. The immediate relevance is for mutual customers using one of those process families and a Siemens AFS-based verification flow. Siemens described AFS as part of its Solido Simulation Suite and positioned it for analog, RF, mixed-signal, memory and custom-digital circuit verification. Siemens’ October 2, 2024 announcement does not describe a new GF process, a customer tapeout or silicon results attributable to the certification.
What AFS does in a design flow
Analog FastSPICE is a circuit simulator intended to retain SPICE-level accuracy while handling larger circuits and verification workloads. Such work can include schematic and post-layout simulation, operating-corner checks, variation analysis and reliability-oriented investigation. These analyses help design teams assess circuit behavior before implementation and tapeout; the specific analyses available depend on the simulator release, models, PDK and project flow.
A foundry certification reduces a qualification barrier between a simulator and the foundry’s process models. It does not remove the need to use the correct PDK release, model files, simulator version, licensing and GF sign-off methodology. The 2024 announcement does not publish a release-by-release compatibility matrix, minimum AFS version, operating-system list or license configuration. Designers need to confirm the exact combination with Siemens and GF.
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How the covered process families differ
| GF process family | Technology context | What the announcement establishes |
|---|---|---|
| 22FDX and 22FDX+ | GF describes 22FDX as an FD-SOI platform. The announcement characterizes 22FDX+ as a derivative offering half-node performance and power improvements. | AFS certification for the 22FDX and 22FDX+ PDKs. GF’s positioning highlights power-sensitive and analog/digital integration use cases; those are platform claims, not proof of outcomes for every design. |
| 12LP and 12LP+ | GF’s 12LP family is a 12nm FinFET platform aimed at high-performance SoC integration, including low-power memory and logic and analog/digital integration. | AFS certification for the 12LP and 12LP+ PDKs. The announcement also discusses OMI enablement for these processes, a separate topic from simulator certification. |
These families use different transistor technologies and address different design trade-offs; certification does not make their design characteristics interchangeable. The process descriptions above reflect the Siemens announcement, rather than an independent comparison of GF platforms.
OMI is related context, not another name for certification
The announcement separately describes work involving the Si2 Compact Model Coalition and the Open Model Interface (OMI). Siemens said GF’s 12LP and 12LP+ processes were enabled with OMI, which it characterized as an industry-standard platform for aging modeling and reliability analysis. That model-interface effort is distinct from GF’s certification of AFS for the four PDKs. OMI alone does not establish that every aging model or reliability analysis is portable across all simulators and PDKs.
What design teams should check before relying on the flow
The announcement names process families, but it does not give enough operational detail to treat every version or project configuration as covered. Confirm the following with the vendors and within the project’s own verification plan:
- Exact process and PDK: Check that the project’s process variant, options and PDK release are within the supported combination. A process-family name alone does not establish coverage of every PDK revision or custom extension.
- AFS release and models: Ask which AFS release and model files the qualification covers, and whether the required analyses and device models are supported.
- Project-specific correlation: Compare results with the foundry reference flow on representative circuits, including relevant process, voltage and temperature corners, mismatch or Monte Carlo runs, and post-layout cases as needed.
- Workload and resources: Measure runtime, memory use, regression throughput, convergence and engineering effort on the team’s netlists and compute environment. Post-layout performance depends on factors such as extracted parasitics, circuit structure, solver settings and available resources.
- Integration and licensing: Verify compatibility with the schematic, layout, netlisting, regression and compute infrastructure in use. AFS is enterprise EDA software; Siemens’ product page provides a sales contact rather than public self-service pricing, so licensing and entitlements should be confirmed directly.
- Reliability methodology: Confirm that the needed aging models, simulator features, licenses and foundry-approved methodology are available for the project’s conditions. OMI enablement is not, by itself, a complete reliability sign-off flow.
How to interpret Siemens’ performance figures
Siemens’ current AFS product page claims more than 5× faster performance than traditional SPICE and more than 2× faster than parallel SPICE. It also describes AFS eXTreme as supporting more than 100 million elements and delivering more than 3× faster post-layout simulation. These are vendor product claims, not independent benchmark results reported in GF’s certification announcement. The announcement supplies no benchmark circuits, machine configuration, simulator settings or measured customer results, so the figures should not be treated as guaranteed speedups for a particular design.
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Who benefits—and what the announcement does not settle
The announcement is most relevant to a team that has access to one of the four named GF PDKs and is evaluating or already using AFS. It signals that GF certified the simulator for those PDKs; it does not establish the exact AFS version required, public PDK access terms, pricing, license conditions, customer results or tapeout outcomes. Siemens’ GF coverage page and direct vendor discussions can help clarify current coverage for a particular project.
For a tool decision, compare the complete qualified flow rather than assuming one simulator is universally best: GF certification for the exact PDK, model and analysis support, correlation, variation and post-layout capacity, convergence, integration, licensing and vendor support all matter. Teams should test on representative circuits before changing an established sign-off or regression flow.
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