OpenAccess Color Team Garners Annual Si2 Power of Partnerships Award

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Technologists from Intel and Microsoft are 2023 winners of the Silicon Integration Initiative Power of Partnerships Award, presented annually to the Si2 volunteer team with the most significant contributions to the electronic design automation industry.

The Si2 OpenAccess Multi-Patterning Technology (oaxColor) Working Group, led by Benjamin Hoefer of Intel, won the award for developing oaxColor, a managed extension to the OpenAccess API. OpenAccess is one of the most widely used open-reference databases for IC design. Color refers to a semiconductor manufacturing technique used to create complex patterns on integrated circuits.

The 2023 Power of Partnerships honorees are:

• Benjamin Hoefer, Intel
• James Masters, Intel
• Ben Bowers, Microsoft
• Rajiv Subramanian, Intel

The new extension provides developers the tools to create their own proprietary coloring applications, offering another adaptable interoperability mode between EDA companies and semiconductor designers and manufacturers.

Marshall Tiner, Si2 senior director of OpenAccess, said, “The lack of multipattern technology support had impeded the further expansion of OA interoperability in this area. Proprietary processes and member patents made it difficult to implement a standard solution. The Working Group developed the managed extension that enables companies to protect their individual solutions.”

About Si2

Silicon Integration Initiative provides standard interoperability solutions for the design of electronic systems. Si2 activities are conducted under the auspices of The National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, which defines R&D joint ventures and protects them against many federal antitrust laws. Si2 has over 65 members, including semiconductor and fabless manufacturers, foundries and EDA companies.

Primary Initiatives

• OpenAccess Coalition — supports one of the world's most widely used open-reference databases for IC design.
• Compact Model Coalition — funds, develops and optimizes standard compact SPICE models and interfaces.
• Unified Power Model Working Group — enables modeling consistency.
• Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Special Interest Group — identifies and enables best practices in AI/ML strategies for EDA.
• Technology Interoperability Trajectory Advisory CouNcil (TITAN) — identifies infrastructural gaps in design automation interoperability.