Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) (NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 0981.HK), the largest semiconductor foundry in China, and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), the leader in global electronic-design innovation, today announced that SMIC is offering a Common Power Format (CPF)-based 90-nanometer low-power digital reference flow and CPF-compliant libraries. SMIC also announced that it has joined the Power Forward Initiative (PFI).

The new flow uses intellectual property developed by SMIC and employs the Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) Low-Power Solution which is designed to increase productivity, manage design complexity, and shorten time to market. This flow is the result of a joint effort by Cadence® and SMIC which further strengthens their relationship and speeds up low-power designs for their mutual customers who face low-power design challenges.

The SMIC reference flow (3.2), employing Cadence technology, is a complete CPF-enabled RTL-to-GDSII low-power flow aimed at efficient energy use for 90-nanometer system-on-chip designs. It incorporates SMIC 90-nanometer logic low leakage 1P9m 1.2/1.8/2.5V generic process and commercial low-power library support. The flow features power awareness throughout all necessary design steps including logic synthesis, simulation, design for test, equivalence checking, silicon virtual prototyping, physical implementation and complete signoff analysis.

"Joining the Power Forward Initiative shows our support for this industry-wide low-power effort and our pursuit of bringing advanced low-power solutions to our end users," said David Lin, senior director, Design Services Division at SMIC. "As advanced process nodes continue to shrink beyond 90 nanometers, two key issues have emerged: manufacturability and testability. The SMIC reference flow, based on the Si2 standard CPF, is a response to these issues, giving us an efficient high-yield process that delivers the highest quality of silicon."

"Cadence welcomes SMIC as a new member of the Power Forward Initiative and their commitment to the success of the industry," said Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu, corporate vice president, IC Digital and Power Forward at Cadence. "It is critical for the semiconductor industry to work closely together to advance low-power technologies, design, and production solutions."

CPF is an Si2-approved standard format for specifying power-saving techniques early in the design process—enabling sharing and reuse of low-power intelligence. The Cadence Low-Power Solution is the industry’s first complete flow that integrates logic design, verification, and implementation with the Si2-standard Common Power Format.

About Power Forward Initiative
The Power Forward Initiative, which has more than 20 member companies, is an industry initiative sponsored by Cadence and has the goal of enabling the design and production of more power-efficient electronic devices. The initiative includes companies representing a broad cross section of the design chain including system, semiconductor, foundry, IP, EDA, ASIC and design services companies. CPF was contributed by Cadence to the Si2 Low Power Coalition in December 2006 and CPF 1.0 is now available as an Si2 standard to the industry at large.

About SMIC
SMIC is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in Mainland China, providing integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing service at 0.35um to 90 nanometers and finer-line technologies. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC has a 300mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) under start-up and three 200mm wafer fabs in its Shanghai mega-fab, two 300mm wafer fabs in its Beijing mega-fab, a 200mm wafer fab in Tianjin, and an in-house assembly and testing facility in Chengdu. SMIC also has customer service and marketing offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and a representative office in Hong Kong. In addition, SMIC manages and operates a 200mm wafer fab in Chengdu owned by Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation and a 300mm wafer fab under construction in Wuhan owned by Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation. For additional information, please visit http://www.smics.com