Global semiconductor foundry UMC has joined the Power Forward Initiative (PFI). The Initiative, made up of more than 20 industry-leading electronics companies, is sponsored by Cadence and was formed in May 2006 to advance the adoption of the Common Power Format (CPF), which captures essential design intent for power and links the design, implementation and verification domains.


The goal of the PFI is to enable the design and production of more power-efficient electronic devices. The Advisory Group consists of representative companies across the design chain from microprocessors to IP to foundries and semiconductor companies, which UMC now joins.

“UMC has developed one of the industry’s most comprehensive low power solution packages to help our customers effectively design for low power and power management applications targeting the consumer, wireless and communication segments,” said Patrick Lin, SoC chief architect at UMC.

“In order to extend our expertise to support broader, industry-wide low power efforts, we have joined the Power Forward Initiative and expect that the Common Power Format will streamline the entire low power design process to help customers accelerate the migration to advanced process nodes.”