Japanese design services firms sign up for PFI

Three Japanese design services company have recently joined the Power Forward Initiative (PFI), and they will be offering Common Power Format (CPF)-enabled low-power design capabilities to their customers. With the addition of Nippon Systemware Co. Ltd (NSW), Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd (DNP) and Toppan Design Center Co. Ltd, the PFI ups its membership to 30 companies.

The three design services companies have adopted the Cadence Design Systems Inc. Low-Power Solution, which integrates leading-edge design, verification and implementation technology with the CPF standard.

"Low-power design is considered ecologically friendly, and is therefore becoming a key requirement for designers of ICs targeting consumer products," said Seiichi Koseki, associate general manager, system logic technology division of NSW. "By using the Common Power Format for low-power hand-off, we can deliver low-power designs to our customers faster and meet their requirements more consistently."

"The Common Power Format will allow our design teams to increase designer productivity and reduce energy consumption which is valuable to our customers," said Yasuo Jimbo, general manager of LSI design & development department, 1st sales division, electronic device operations at DNP. "Through our design consulting services, we have experienced the value of CPF-based low-power design."

"A large number of new designs are for communications and consumer products requiring low-power implementations," said Takashi Nabuchi, manager, Asaka design center of Toppan Technical Design Center. "CPF provides the mechanism for communicating low-power intent that helps us give our customers exactly what they want."