Cadence RTL Design Studio: Built for the Full PPAC Journey

If you've used Joules RTL Design Studio, you already know what it can do. Now it has a name that matches its full potential.

We're renaming Joules RTL Design Studio to Cadence RTL Design Studio. The product isn't changing, just the name.

Why Is the Name Changing?

When Joules RTL Design Studio launched, it expanded upon the Joules RTL Power Solution by adding visibility into performance, area, and congestion alongside power. But the "Joules" name stuck—and with it, the perception that this was primarily a power tool. It isn't. It never was just power.

Cadence RTL Design Studio is a full PPAC solution. It gives front-end designers early, accurate insight into power, performance, area, and congestion—all before handoff to implementation. The new name makes that clear from the get-go.

What It Does

Cadence RTL Design Studio delivers up to 5X faster RTL convergence and up to 25% improvement in quality of results (QoR) by bringing physical design feedback to the RTL stage—where changes are fastest and cheapest to make.

Key capabilities include:

• Full PPAC visibility at RTL – Identify timing, congestion, power, and area issues early, before they become costly implementation problems.
• Intelligent RTL debugging assistant – An expert system that triages violations, explores what-if scenarios, and provides actionable guidance to resolve issues directly in the source code.
• Proven engine accuracy – PPAC estimates are driven by the same trusted engines as Innovus Implementation System, Genus Synthesis Solution, and Joules RTL Power Solution, so designers can trust that RTL-stage decisions will track with production implementation.
• Unified cockpit – A single GUI for RTL analysis, schematic cross-probing, layout feedback, and design exploration.
• AI-powered design exploration – Integration with Cadence Cerebrus^® Intelligent Chip Explorer enables generative AI-driven exploration of floorplan optimization, frequency vs. voltage tradeoffs, and more.
• Prototyping support – Designers can explore and prototype design decisions prior to committing to place and route, reducing costly late-stage iterations.

The Bigger Picture

For too long, RTL designers operated separately from implementation engineers. Problems that could have been identified and resolved quickly during the RTL phase were instead found later, causing costly revisions and delaying product release.

Cadence RTL Design Studio closes that gap. It shifts left the visibility and intelligence implementation teams have always had, putting them directly in the hands of front-end designers at the moment they're most useful.

The name change goes beyond appearance; it indicates that this tool supports the entire PPAC process—from initial RTL design to final production implementation.

Learn more about Cadence RTL Design Studio.

The product formerly known as Joules RTL Design Studio is now Cadence RTL Design Studio. No changes are being made to the product at this time.