Choosing a CPU for best ADE performance

Hi,

We're looking to build a workstation computer as part of our (university) research lab for IC design. We're looking to purchase a computer that can run ADE for analog/mixed-signal simulations with post-layout parasitic extractions, Calibre LVS, DRC, across multiple users (e.g. 5 or 6 designers simultaneously). Running AMS for large scale designs is often the bottleneck for our design cycle.

We're currently looking at what CPU would be best suited for this type of work, for example in Intel's Xeon multi-core CPU line. I've seen a couple past threads in this forum discussing some CPU considerations (e.g. running with APS mode enabled, advantages of multi-core over multi-threaded). I was curious if there were some benchmarks available from Cadence or external sources that could shed some light on how simulation performance scales with CPU specs, in particular with number of cores, cache size, how hyper-threading affects simulation speeds, and if having a dual processor configuration improves or degrades simulation performance.

Having some benchmarks or some performance numbers would be very helpful for us to make an informed objective decision, as this will be a significant investment. I've tried to find some benchmarks regarding these issues online, but I have so far been unsuccessful. Any help on this issue from this forum would be much appreciated!