Building an in-house design environment for a leading-edge node is beyond the reach of most small chip teams, and imec’s IC-Link has found a way around that barrier: it has joined TSMC’s OIP Cloud Alliance. Customers get controlled cloud access to advanced-node process design kits plus scalable compute, rather than standing up their own infrastructure.
Design teams keep their choice of EDA tools and licences. IC-Link handles secure hosting, infrastructure management and access to design resources, which the partners say reduces the engineering effort needed to maintain an advanced-node flow. European fabless companies, startups and research groups are the intended beneficiaries.
Pierre Blondeau, who leads ASIC Services at IC-Link, said the membership pairs advanced-node technology with mixed-partner EDA flows and support. It builds on earlier work: the unit already belongs to the foundry’s programme for advanced packaging and 3D IC development.
The timing tracks the A14 generation. Cadence reported that its digital, signoff and custom flows are certified for A16 and A14, and that it showed a UALink solution in N3P. Synopsys outlined multiphysics-aware signoff methods and multi-die flows for TSMC’s newest processes. Agentic AI design flows ran through both announcements, matching this year’s open innovation platform theme.
