( ESNUG 394 Item 10 ) -------------------------------------------- [05/29/02]

Subject: ( SNUG 02 #8 ) Hey! The Synopsys Ketchum Tool Is Not Dead Either!

> This year, two Synopsys tools ('Ketchum' & 'Verification Analyst') that
> I had been tracking under the Synopsys NDA cloak have disappeared.  They
> were verification tools similar to 0-in (SNUG 01 #23).
>
>     Dataquest FY 2000 Formal Analysis Market (in $ Millions)
>
>                        0-in  # $1.1 (51%)
>                     Averant  # $1.1 (49%)
>
>                       Total  ## $2.2
>
> I know there have been layoffs at Synopsys over the past 8 months.  Maybe
> Aart just decided that a miniscule $2.2 million market was small potatoes
> not worth chasing after.


From: [ Synopsys R&D ]

John,

Please keep me anon.  Your rumors on Ketchum are completely false.  The
technology is in active development.  Functional verification is too
important of an area for the  design market for Synopsys not to invest.

    - [ Synopsys R&D ]

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From: Umberto Rossi <umberto.rossi@st.com>

Hi John,

We are currently evaluating Ketchum and started seeing promising results.

I see Ketchum as a real opportunity to drive hybrid functional verification
to reveal more bugs by the usage of semi-formal techniques.  Coverage driven
test pattern generation is the ambition of many products and may be very
challenging to position such a product in the market.

I guess that Synopsys takes great pains to mature a technology like this
before making announcements and unleashing new products.  

    - Umberto Rossi
      STMicroelectronics                         Agrate Brianza, Italy