IC Design Capability Conversion from Mainframe to Workstation Environment

Over the last eighteen months, Sandia National Laboratories has converted its IC design facility from a mainframe to a workstation environment. Although workstations were advertised as turnkey systems, augmentation of vendor software with Sandia-developed software greatly enhanced Sandia´s specific IC design capabilities. This article examines advantages of the workstation approach for sophisticated CAD tool users, discussing complete hardware, software, and networking capacities and capabilities.