Synopsys

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Not to be confused with Synopsis
Synopsys, Inc.
Type Public
Founded 1986
Headquarters Mountain View, California
Key people Aart J. de Geus, CEO/Chairman
Chi-Foon Chan, President/COO
Industry Software & Programming
Revenue ▲ $1,212.0 million USD (FY 2007)
Net income ▲ $130.5 million USD (FY 2007)
Employees 5,130 (October 2006) [1]
Website www.synopsys.com

Synopsys, Inc. NASDAQ: SNPS is one of the largest companies in the electronic design automation industry. Synopsys' most well-known (and first) product is Design Compiler. Synopsys offers a wide range of other products used in the design of an application-specific integrated circuit. Products include logic synthesis, behavioral synthesis, place and route, static timing analysis, formal verification, Verilog and VHDL simulators as well as transistor-level circuit simulation. The simulators include development and debugging environments which assist in the design of the logic for chips and computer systems.

Contents

[edit] History

The company was founded in 1986 as Optimal Solutions by Dr. Aart J. de Geus and a team of engineers from General Electric's Microelectronics Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Since then it went through a series of acquisitions. The company has more than 60 sales, support and R&D offices worldwide in North America, Europe, Japan, the Pacific Rim, Israel, Chile and Armenia.

Synopsys opened its first office in India in 1995. As of 2007, Synopsys' major competitors are Cadence Design Systems, Mentor Graphics, and Magma Design Automation.

Acquisitions, mergers, spinoffs
  • 1994: Acquired Cadis, Aachen, Germany. Through this acquisition Synopsys got the communication systems and DSP design tool suit named COSSAP. COSSAP stood for Communication System Simulation and Application Processor. Synopsys carried out various communication (predominantly wireless modems) design and consulting activities using this tool (and later the evolved new tool Co-centric System Studio). The Cadis group was a spin off development initiative from Aachen Technical University (ISS) in Germany, spearheaded by Professor Heinrich Meyr[2] and Professor Gerd Ascheid.[3] COSSAP was a competing product to SPW[4] from Cadence (now maintained and enhanced by Coware).[5] Synopsys stopped support on COSSAP since 2003 and now promoting the enhanced tool Cocentric System Studio.
  • 1997: acquired EPIC Design Technology Inc., USA
  • 1997: acquired Viewlogic Systems, Inc., USA
  • June 6, 2002: merger with Avanti Corporation, USA. Avanti was founded when several ex-Cadence employees bought the startup ArcSys. Avanti merged with ISS gaining Hercules its DRC/LVC tool, bought Compass' place and route tool; reworked it to create Saturn and Apollo II and also bought TMA which brought their pioneering TCAD and Proteus Optical proximity correction tools.[6] This was, by far, Synopsys' most significant and controversial acquisition. At the time Avanti was the #4 company in the EDA industry, and was struggling with a major lawsuit from Cadence for software theft.[7] The criminal case had just concluded, with Avanti executives pleading no contest to trade-secret theft, conspiracy to commit trade-secret theft, receiving stolen property, and securities fraud, and several receiving jail time. To acquire Avanti, Synopsys paid about $55 million in golden handshake[8] and poison pill[9] payments to these same executives. Synopsys then paid an additional $265 million to Cadence to settle the remaining civil suit and $26.1 million to Silvaco to settle two of three Silvaco's suits against Meta Software and its President filed in 1995 and inherited by Avanti [10]
  • September 12, 2002: acquired Co-Design Automation, Inc. USA. Co-Design pioneered the Superlog language, a superset of the popular Verilog hardware description language, extending its capabilities into verification and system design. Superlog formed the basis of The SystemVerilog language standardized by Accelera in 2003.
  • March 3, 2003: acquired Numerical Technologies, Inc. USA. (Note: a pioneer in design for manufacturing software which included CATS mask fracturing.). Synopsys paid about $250 million in cash.
  • February 23, 2004: acquired Accelerant Networks, USA
  • February 26, 2004: acquired technology assets of Analog Design Automation, Inc., USA
  • October 2004: acquired assets of Monterey Design Systems, Inc., USA
  • October 18, 2004: acquired Cascade Semiconductor Solutions Inc., USA
  • November 2, 2004: acquired Integrated Systems Engineering AG (ISE), Switzerland, a TCAD company.
  • November 2, 2004: acquired assets of LEDA Design, Inc., USA, a developer of mixed-signal intellectual property.
  • December 1, 2004: agreement to acquire Nassda Corp., USA, an integrated circuit simulator company and settle the litigation between the two companies
  • December 7, 2005: Acquired HPL Technologies,[11] a semiconductor analysis software manufacturer that makes software specializing in wafer design analysis and yield enhancement for wafer process.
  • May 16, 2006, announced expanding its presence in electronic system level (ESL) design by acquiring Virtio Corporation, creator of virtual platforms for embedded software development.
  • June 21, 2006: Santiago Chile, Synopsys R&D Center Chile Opening.
  • August 16, 2006: Acquired Sigma-C a Munich based lithography simulation company.[12]
  • June 18, 2007: Acquired ArchPro Design Automation Inc.
  • July 30, 2007: Completes Acquisition of MOSAID Semiconductor IP Assets [13]
  • October 2, 2007: Synopsys Acquires Sandwork Design.[14]
  • March 30, 2008: Announced acquisition of Synplicity, the leader in FPGA synthesis and rapid prototyping technology.[15]

[edit] Management team

  • Dr. Aart J. de Geus, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
  • Dr. Chi-Foon Chan, President and Chief Operating Officer
  • Brian Beattie, Chief Financial Officer
  • Joe Logan, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
  • John Chilton, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Marketing and Strategic Development
  • Jan Collinson, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Facilities
  • Dr. Antun Domic, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Implementation Group
  • Manoj Gandhi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Verification Group
  • Deirdre Hanford, Senior Vice President, Global Technology Services
  • Brian Cabrera, Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
  • Paul Lo, Senior Vice President, Analog and Mixed Signal Group

[edit] Notable persons

[edit] Significant products

[edit] References

  1. ^ Synopsys Form 10-K for the year ended October 31, 2006
  2. ^ ISS - Institut - Mitarbeiter: Heinrich Meyr
  3. ^ ISS - Institut - Mitarbeiter: Gerd Ascheid
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ CoWare: The ESL Design Leader
  6. ^ DeepChip Homepage
  7. ^ The Avant! Saga: Does Crime Pay? The inside story of a company that stole software code From Business Week
  8. ^ EETimes.com - Synopsys to acquire Avanti for $830 million
  9. ^ EETimes.com - Avanti chairman Hsu voted $20M golden parachute
  10. ^ Synopsys Form 8K/A July 26, 2002
  11. ^ HPL Technologies
  12. ^ Sigma-C
  13. ^ Synopsys Completes Acquisition of MOSAID Semiconductor IP Assets
  14. ^ Synopsys Acquires Sandwork Design
  15. ^ Synopsys Completes Acquisition of Synplicity, Inc.
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[edit] External links