A UNIVERSITY of Glasgow spinout which designs software to assist the development of silicon chips has landed a multi-million dollar deal with a US semiconductor foundry.

Gold Standard Simulations (GSS), which launched in 2010, has licensed its tool suite to California-based Global Foundries. The tools aim to help the semiconductor industry make savings by predicting how silicon chips perform as they decrease in size and increase in complexity. This evolution leaves chips open to structural imperfections, leading to reductions in manufacturing yields and product failure.

GSS chief executive professor Asen Asenov said: "I believe this relationship will prove to be highly symbiotic and will lead to advances in both Global Foundries' technology offerings and in driving future developments in the GSS tool chain."