Chipmaking tools provider Cadence has announced an expanded multi-year collaboration with Intel Foundry, Intel’s chipmaking division, focusing on Design Technology Co-Optimisation (DTCO) for Team Blue’s next-generation process technologies, beginning with Intel 14A process node.
Cadence And Intel Foundry Deepens Ties
“The new multi-year agreement combines Cadence’s agentic AI-driven EDA and Design IP solutions with Intel’s process innovation and advanced design expertise,” Cadence said in its press statement. The collaboration centers on optimizing tools, flows, and methodologies to improve performance, power, and area (PPA) outcomes for customers. Cadence and Intel Foundry will work toward production-ready process design kits (PDKs) for Intel 14A, with Cadence’s AI-driven EDA flows intended to reduce design risk and accelerate time-to-market.
Currently, Intel’s leading-edge production node is “18A”, where “A” stands for “Angstrom,” which is a tenth of a nanometer. This unit is currently being used by leading foundries such as TSMC to denote the sub-nanometer process nodes, though it should be noted that these are largely marketing names, not indicative of the actual transistor size (which has largely stuck to ~10nm and above since FinFET was introduced in the 14nm node and beyond).
The expanded agreement also covers IP readiness and broader design enablement, supporting customer projects that will target Intel 14A. The two companies have framed the collaboration as a deeper extension of an existing relationship, with scope expanding across co-optimization methodology, advanced packaging integration, and ecosystem development for Intel Foundry customers.
Pokdepinion: AI plays a big role in chip development these days, although how fast it accelerates time-to-market is still one to watch.
