( ESNUG 400 Item 3 ) --------------------------------------------- [10/10/02]
Subject: Wall Street Asks About The Latest Physical Synopsys Tape-out Count
> Anyway, here's my estimated tape-outs for May, 2002:
>
> Synopsys PhysOpt ######################################## 600 tape-outs
> Magma ####### 100
> Cadence PKS ## 36
> Monterey 3
>
> Synopsys reported 500 tape-outs at SNUG'02 and just this week they clamed
> 600 tape-outs in a press release. Magma made the 'over 100 tape-outs'
> claim at the big press event they had 2 weeks ago. I called them on it
> and they said 50 of them were from TI.
>
> - 5 months ago from SNUG 02 #15
From: Richard Ong <rong@eaglecap.com>
Hi, John,
I'm wondering if you have any updates on the comparitive physical synthesis
tape-outs since your histogram in SNUG 02 #15. You didn't make such a table
in your DAC Trip Report.
Synopsys had the early lead with Physical Compiler, but the we read about
some problems ESNUG 374 #7. Any updates? Also, any explanation why all of
the cited Magma tape-outs were gates-to-placed-gates, and why Magma
synthesis wasn't used? Has this changed with time? A follow-on to that
would be does the Magma sales pitch (single technology, single design flow)
come through in reality?
How important is a single data model (Magma pitch), and can Synopsys and
Avanti deliver a single data model database?
- Richard Ong
Eagle Capital Management New York, NY
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: John Cooley <jcooley@theworld.com>
You're right, Richard, my last DAC Trip Report didn't have a comparitive
histogram for physical synthesis tape-outs. Sorry. Here's where I *think*
they're at today (Oct. 10, 2002) from what I see.
PhysOpt ############################################### 1200 tape-outs
Magma #### 101
Cadence PKS ## 54
Monterey # 13
I had to estimate the PhysOpt tape-outs by simply graphing the known numbers
and extrapolating to now. Because there are so many, I have no way to count
them all directly any more. And besides, the user traffic I see on PhysOpt
confirms to me that it's widely used.
I had a problem with Magma because only one more user wrote me to say he did
a new tape-out. He was originally anon in DAC 02 #16 (at his request), but
in this issue of ESNUG Simon Matthews of Paxonet decided to become non-anon.
The additional 18 Cadence PKS tape-outs came directly from DAC 02 #14.
The 10 additional Monterey tape-outs came from DAC 02 #15 plus a detailed
Monterey tape-out you'll find in next week's ESNUG post.
I've pretty much stopped tracking tape-outs here in physical synthesis except
for Monterey & PKS. Once you get past around 100 tape-outs you've pretty
much shown that the technology works and then it becomes more of a Dataquest
marketshare issue than tape-out count issue.
Also, to be fair to Cadence, Monterey, and the old Avanti company, tracking
physical synthesis tape-outs is only *half* the picture here. There's still
the question of how many tape-outs various floorplanners have, too -- like
First Encounter vs. Jupiter vs. Floorplan Compiler vs. Aristo IC Wizard vs.
the standard older Cadence & Avanti tools used to floorplan before all these
new tools came on the market.
- John Cooley
the ESNUG guy
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