Synopsys
From Free net encyclopedia
Synopsys, Inc. Template:Nasdaq is one of the three largest competitors in the electronic design automation industry, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Mountain View, California.
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 place and route, static timing analysis, and Verilog and VHDL simulators. The simulators include a powerful debugging environment which assists in the design of the logic for chips and computer systems.
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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.
As of 2005, Synopsys's major competitors are Cadence Design Systems, Mentor Graphics, and Magma Design Automation.
Acquisitions, mergers, spinoffs
- 1997: acquired EPIC Design Technology Inc., USA
- 1997: acquired Viewlogic Systems, Inc., USA
- June 6, 2002: merger with Avanti Corporation, USA. This was, by far, the 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. 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[1] and poison pill[2] payments to these same executives. Synopsys then paid an additional $265 million to Cadence to settle the remaining civil suit.
- March 3, 2003: acquired Numerical Technologies, Inc. USA. (Note: a pioneer in design for manufacturing software). Synopsys paid about $250M 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 (Note: a development division in Armenia)
- 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. (Note: a development division in Armenia)
- 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 [3], a semiconductor analysis software manufacturer that makes software specializing in wafer design analysis and yield enhancement for wafer process. (Note: a development division in Armenia)
Finance
Management Team
- Dr. Aart J. de Geus, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
- Dr. Chi-Foon Chan, President and Chief Operating Officer
- Vicki Andrews, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
- Dr. Raul Camposano, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and General Manager, Silicon Engineering Group
- John Chilton, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Solutions Group
- 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
- Jay Greenberg, Senior Vice President, Marketing
- Deirdre Hanford, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Application Services
- Rex S. Jackson, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Acting Chief Financial Officer
Notable persons
- Aart J. de Geus, founder
- Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, co-founder.
