( ESNUG 501 Item 8 ) -------------------------------------------- [04/04/12]

Subject: SNPS and LAVA employees going through 90 days of Thunderdome

> Hi, John,
>
> Any news yet on which specific LAVA tools Aart is going to keep and
> which he's going to kill?  It has a big impact on our projects.
>
>     - [ Anon, Please ]


From: John Cooley <jcooley=user domain=zeroskew not calm>

On noon Feb 22, the Magma web page switched over to SNPS indicating that
the SNPS-LAVA merger had gone through.  To the surprise of many in the EDA
industry, the FTC did not challenge any aspect of this merger.

In reaction, boatloads of users wrote into DeepChip publically pleading
for Aart to please please please keep certain LAVA tools alive:

       Magma users stepping up asking Synopsys to keep Talus
               http://www.deepchip.com/items/0498-01.html

       Users voting to save Magma Tekton and QCP
               http://www.deepchip.com/items/0499-01.html

       Users voting to save Magma Titan and FineSim
               http://www.deepchip.com/items/0499-02.html

       Users voting to save Magma Quartz DRC/LVS
               http://www.deepchip.com/items/0499-03.html

       Users voting to save Magma SiliconSmart
               http://www.deepchip.com/items/0499-04.html

       And even more users voting to save Magma Talus
               http://www.deepchip.com/items/0499-05.html

SNPS countered by replying in their Insight quarterly magazine:

   "We place the highest value on not disrupting our customers' ongoing
    design projects, whether you are using Synopsys or Magma software.
    All contracts in effect are expected to remain in full force, and we
    intend to support both companies' product lines.  Over the next
    90 days, we will be developing product roadmaps that will reflect
    the combined capabilities of both companies, and we welcome your
    perspectives on how we can best serve our customers."

   "... We are working as quickly as possible to integrate the two
    organizations while ensuring uninterrupted support."

That 90 day deadline is interesting because it means SNPS wants to have all
the major kinks in this LAVA merger worked out by DAC.  That is:

           Feb 22 + 90 days == the beginning of DAC 2012

So what's really going on at SNPS and LAVA over these next 90 days?

To be blunt, Thunderdome.

  

The problem is that there's massive duplication in the two company's product
lines.  Here's an engineer's letter pointing it out:

 "Other than for marketshare, I don't see why Aart bought Magma.  The two
  have enormous product overlap.

                         Synopsys                Magma

     P&R                 IC Compiler             X - Talus Vortex
     Static Timing       PrimeTime               X - Tekton
     Logic Synthesis     DC Ultra                X - Talus Design/RTL
     Full Custom         X - Custom Designer     Titan MSDP, ADX, etc.
     DRC/LVS             IC Validator            X - Talus qDRC
     DRC/LVS             X - Hercules            Quartz DRC/LVS
     Extraction          X - Star-RC             QCP, QuickCAP
     Lib Char            X - Liberty NCX         SiliconSmart
     Yield/Litho         Yield Explorer, etc.    X - Camelot, etc.

     SPICE               HSPICE/HSIM             FineSim
     Fast SPICE          CustomSim               FineSim Pro

  X - denotes tool Aart will most likely kill off.  Note no X's for any
      SPICE tool.  SNPS doesn't End-of-Life them.

  Anyway, this merger is good for Synopsys; not good for EDA users."

      - from http://www.deepchip.com/items/0496-02.html

Massive duplication doesn't just mean two SW product release trees, it means
duplicate sales people, duplicate FAEs, duplicate CAEs, duplicate R&D, etc.

Which, in America, always means it's layoff time!

And just because SNPS acquired LAVA, it does NOT mean SNPS employees are
staying and LAVA guys are leaving -- in many cases, the better LAVA employee
will be the one asked to stay.  Hence, Thunderdome:

  

So up until DAC 2012, on a job-by-job basis, from lowest office secretary
all the way up to (and including) certain VP's and GMs, all dup SNPS-LAVA
employees will be living: "Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves!"  (Not fun.)

And don't be surprised if any of the LAVA (or backend SNPS) guys you work
with "suddenly" disappear between now and DAC.

         ----    ----    ----    ----    ----    ----   ----

And to answer the LAVA user's original question directly, the current rumors
I've heard since SNUG'12 are:

   - FineSim and FineSim Pro aren't going away, but will be sold along
     with all the other SNPS SPICE simulators.

   - SiliconSmart will probably take over library characterization.

   - Extreme GoldTime will be "PrimeTime Super Fast Plus" (or some other
     BS name indicating speed) once the R&D guys can strip out all the
     GoldTime references and replace them with PrimeTime references.
     LAVA Tekton will be completely killed off.

   - Talus might be sewn into ICC as a "simple" mode or an estimator.

   - Talus Design (RTL synthesis) is obviously dead.

The rumor mill is silent on what'll happen in the Custom Designer vs. Titan;
Hercules vs. Quartz; and Star-RC vs. QCP death matches.

    - John Cooley
      DeepChip.com                               Holliston, MA

   !!!     "It's not a BUG,
  /o o\  /  it's a FEATURE!"
 (  >  )
  \ - / 
  _] [_     (jcooley 1991)