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Cadence's Ambit Gambit Plan to strengthen SOC tool arsenal san jose, calif. -- The last several weeks have been a mad scramble in the EDA industry's top tier to bolster individual portfolios for the very deep submicron crunch. Vendors need to provide faster synthesis, place and route, timing analysis, power analysis and signal integrity upfront before heavy design work is done. When Cadence acquired Bell Labs Design Automation (EN, Aug. 31), the company not only acquired the high profile formal verification portfolio of BLDA but BLDA's work in signal integrity, another critical component in upfront designing. In a long-anticipated move to fill out its tool flow, Cadence Design Systems last Thursday announced it will acquire Ambit Design Systems, provider of the BuildGates logic synthesis tool, and primary competition to Synopsys. Synopsys' logic synthesis tool, DesignCompiler has held just about all of the synthesis tool market share since its inception. Coupled with Cadence's acquisition of Bell Labs two weeks ago, the Ambit deal brings the top two EDA companies in greater head-to-head competition. According to Jennifer Smith, research analyst, Robertson Stephens, the deal shows how Cadence and Synopsys are becoming more direct competitors. In the past, the two companies followed complementary design flows. One motivation for the acquisition is the fast synthesis technology Ambit employs in the BuildGates tool along with timing analysis technology -- both pieces are critical in enabling engineers to design for multi-million gate, block-based designs. When Cadence made an equity investment in Ambit last December, and then earlier this year signed an agreement that it would provide an upgrade path for Ambit's BuildGates tool from its own much-to-be-desired synthesis tool, it was then that the industry began to wonder about a pending acquisition. The issues associated with deep submicron are definitely on the mind of Cadence president and CEO, Jack Harding. During a June interview with Electronic News, Mr. Harding said going forward, "clearly, the challenge will be submicron IC design. There's no doubt about that. But there's a paradox here, because at a time when we're concerned with more and more detail, even approaching the laws of physics, Maxwell's equations around IC design, we are paradoxically and simultaneously concerning ourselves with the highest level of abstraction to do hardware-software co-verification and design. "The systems are so complex that you have to think in terms of big blocks of design, so that you can get the functionality and architecture in your head, but then you have to drill down and worry about (an) electron jumping to a wire. And that is a very difficult challenge and that's not unique to Cadence; that's unique to the entire electronics world. "So we are going high, with the Alta product line, and going low, with the deep submicron product line; and constantly looking for ways to compress and consolidate the technologies in between into more functional, scaled tools that allow people to not have 27 steps to go from A to B. In fact, maybe they can do it in five steps based on interlocking technologies. That's why our portfolio of technology is so critical, because the point tool can only do that one step. They can only do 1/27th of the problem or the solution. Whereas if we converge and consolidate many functions into fewer tools, and let the software do the thinking, you can greatly reduce the number of iterations you go through, to resolve the process." Cadence is paying $260 million in cash for Ambit, and the acquisition will be accounted for under the purchase method of accounting. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the acquisiton, but it is still pending Ambit shareholder approval. Cadence along with Ambit customers see that the company has established the technology as, in many cases, a better alternative to what other tools can offer. The companies expect the majority of the more than 100 Ambit employees to join Cadence. Synopsys' Raul Camposano, CTO and Sr. VP of the Design Tools Group, said that in terms of Cadence competing with Synopsys now, it doesn't change much, since Cadence did in the past have a synthesis tool which was even more popular than the Ambit tool. In fact, that Cadence now owns the technology makes the dynamic worse for BuildGates users since they won't have the perceived advantage of dealing with a start-up, usually believed to be more nimble and swift in addressing customer concerns. "If anything, it will make our lives easier," Mr. Camposano said. He also mentioned he thought it was interesting that when Jack Harding, president and CEO of Cadence talks about the need for next generation tools, and that it says a lot about Cadence's current technology. "From the Synopsys point of view, we have all the tools," he concluded. "What is more essential to this acquisition for both companies is what it means for the next generation for synthesis," says Jennifer Smith of Robertson Stephens. Currently Synopsys holds the dominant position in the market with DesignCompiler already having achieved ASIC vendor signoff. Most chipmakers are not going to switch today in light of the deal. "It becomes more important when you look at system on a chip, place and route need a tighter coupling (with synthesis) so it will come down to who will have the better position," says Ms. Smith. Another industry perspective said:"I think Synopsys has fought off some very good products in the past," says John Barr, a research analyst at Needham & Associates. He cited Autologic from Mentor and Synergy from Cadence as two products Synopsys defeated in the past. "I think this one will be more complicated and difficult," says Mr. Barr. "I think Cadence is serious and I think Ambit is a worthy competitor. This is one Synopsys will have to take quite seriously." So far Synopsys has responded to the challenges of Ambit, Mr. Barr says. DesignCompiler 98 took some of Ambit's advantage back; however Ambit has met its business plan and responded. "It is a real threat," says Mr. Barr, "but Synopsys is certainly coming at it from a position of strength with their DC 98 product." Cadence's acquisition of Ambit comes at an interesting point in the EDA industry. After years of not agreeing on a particular method for sharing proprietary information, it appears EDA industry vendors are willing to work together at last to meet customer expectations. This trend is evidenced by Cadence Design Systems being the first company to license the Synopsys Design Constraints (SDC) and the Liberty format as part of its technology access program, TAP-in. The TAP-in program was implemented last November, and since that time, the companies representing most of the EDA market revenue have licensed the technology. The SDC, key to Synopsys' Design Compiler and PrimeTime tools, are used by designers to describe their intent for a design. The constraints include those for timing, clock, area, test and power and drive a number of EDA tools including synthesis, timing analysis, and placement/routing. Industry response to Cadence's participation in the TAP-in program has been positive. "This move by Cadence finally demonstrates that the big players are giving more than just lip service to interoperability. Because Cadence uses tools from Synopsys and other EDA vendors in its design services organization, it is running into the same kinds of interoperability issues as other EDA customers," says Rita Glover, president and principal analyst at EDA Today, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based market research and consulting firm. "It's to everyone's benefit to be open and not create a Berlin Wall around (their proprietary formats)," Ms. Glover continued. In addition to giving Cadence customers access to Synopsys' widely used design constraint and library formats, the two companies will work together to help Cadence prepare to openly license its LEF and DEF APIs, since the companies have many mutual customers and can better address issues jointly. |