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.