History of Sondrel
Sondrel provides a range of engineering solutions to the semiconductor industry throughout the world. In the seven years since Sondrel was established our teams have completed nearly 200 designs, and through a combination of specialist design skills and advanced methodologies and project management techniques we have achieved a record of 100% first time right silicon, in technologies down to 28nm.
Sondrel opened its first office in Berkshire, UK in 2002, initially specialising in Place and Route. Our first design was a hard disk controller chip for a European company which was implemented in 0.13μm and became a big commercial success. We went on to complete a number of other products for the same customer, including a number of mobile phone baseband devices. After two years we opened our second office which we located in Nice in the south of France.
During the next couple of years we became first a Magma-Ties partner and then an LSI Logic Approved Design Centre and RapidChip partner. We continued to expand in Europe and then in 2006 opened an office in Israel. Customers in India, Japan and the USA followed and our product experience grew to include graphics accelerators, processors, networking devices and almost every other application. Also in 2006 we undertook our first complex DFT assignment as this part of the design process was becoming ever more specialised.
Throughout this period we had been developing our in-house design methodology (Neon), design flow (Helium), and debug and quality environment (Argon). With these tools we were now able to offer predictable time scales with controlled risks and a flexible interface. These unique benefits were to prove instrumental in our growth over the next few years and it was with this combination that we were later to win a number of accolades and awards. We were also active in providing articles for professional journals, presenting papers at EDA user groups and undertaking speaking engagements at international conferences. In China we have presented at ASICON 2007, and at MUSIC 2009 where we presented a paper on our work with ARM on low power processor implementation.
We reached a milestone in 2007 when we completed our one hundredth design, and later in the year we were delighted when the combination of Helium, Neon and Argon were shortlisted as a finalist for the IET Innovation Awards. In 2008 we announced a partnership with Delta Microelectronics of Denmark, to provide a full service from RTL to production tested parts and we developed a DFT technique which was able to reduce test time on complex production devices by 20% (a technique later adopted by a major semiconductor company). Also in 2008 we started our first 45nm design.
In July 2008 Sondrel (Xi’an) Limited was formed and we opened our design centre in the Xi’an Hi-Tech Development Zone, where the intention was to develop a team to provide long term support to projects worldwide.
April 2009 saw Sondrel awarded with The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category. The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise “are the UK’s most prestigious awards for business performance. They recognise outstanding achievement by UK companies and are made each year by The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister”.
Sondrel’s technical capabilities were recognized by becoming a design partner for SMIC in 2009 and a design centre alliance partner for TSMC in early 2010. By now Sondrel’s technical expertise had expanded to encompass all the discipline form C level design through to verification and into supply chain management.
Sondrel’s presence in China grew very quickly resulting in the need to accelerate the creation of a Shanghai office with sales and engineering support. In September 2010 the Sondrel office in ZhangJiang Hi-Tech Park was opened by the UK Minister of Business and Enterprise, Mark Prisk. In November 2010 Sondrel was invited to participate in the UK Prime Minister’s trade mission to China as part of the largest business delegation to accompany a UK Prime Minister. Sondrel’s CEO, Graham Curren represented one of two successful UK hi-tech companies doing business in China, and Business Secretary, Vince Cable commented, “Sondrel's expanding presence in China is testament to the strong economic relationship between China and the UK”.
Looking ahead, we see an increasing emphasis on the need to conserve power, the techniques we have developed through years of involvement in mobile applications are becoming more widespread across diverse markets, and by providing predictable and flexible routes to production we look forward to many more years of shared success with our customers and partners.
The Queens Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2009
© 2012 Sondrel Ltd