( ESNUG 542 Item 9 ) -------------------------------------------- [08/08/14]
Subject: TSMC, Dell, Verdi 3, Voltus-Fi, CDNS Protium, Pyxis, Gabriele
DOG DAYS OF AUGUST: Here's the latest news & rumors I've heard about EDA and
the fabs this summer. Feel free to comment/correct/scold anything!
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- WEIRD SCOOP: Although I find it extremely hard to believe, I've had
multiple sources report that Atrenta is planning its first users
group, and -- get this -- they're planning on having it at the new
San Francisco 49ers football stadium in Santa Clara! Not joking!
  
Does Ajoy Bose, CEO of Atrenta, actually believe his user group is
going to draw near 68,983 users??? What has Ajoy been smoking???
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- FUN QUOTE
"Who gives a $%!& if it's Intel or Samsung beating them???
Morris Chang said TSMC will slip behind to #2 in FinFET
for 2015. That's not good for the bottom line."
- An anon Wall St. guy explains why TSMC shares
have dropped 14% over these last 3 weeks
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- WEIRD NEWS: While most EDA companies were putting out last minute
press releases about their sexy new tools of 2014 right before DAC,
on May 30th, Aldec issued one very unexpected press release.
  
It was about how an Aldec VP of nearly 20 years had been busted in
an embezzlment scheme involving his mother-in-law (as bookkeeper)
plus an unknown number of other unnamed Aldec employees.
"If you have questions regarding the actions being taken against...
... contact Aldec's legal counsel at (XXX) XXX-XXXX."
Holy crap! Going into DAC after firing all those employees????
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- FUN FACT
Gary Smith's 5 year prediction of EDA & IP revenues for 2014
2008: #################### $4,319
2009: ################### $4,091
2010: #################### $4,454
2011: ######################## $5,155
2012: ########################## $5,742
2013: ############################ $6260
2014: ############################# $6,597 <---- we are here
2015: ############################## $6,822
2016: ################################## $7,686
2017: ###################################### $8,471
2018: ######################################### $9,173
All IP except ARM, true EDA tool sales, no services sales.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- SHOW ME THE MONEY: Surprise! Surprise! IC Manage's Dean Drako just
got "multi-millions" in VC funding from Michael Dell, as in THAT
Michael Dell of Dell Computers for Dean's new Eagle Eye Networks
cloud video surveillance start-up.
  
In related news, Amit Gupta of Solido is happy because he just got
$1.25 million in growth funding from the Canadian government.
  
It's always good to see EDA guys getting financial backing! Cool!
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- FUN QUOTE
"I don't know who told you that SNPS was going to lock-out
non-VCS simulators from its SpringSoft Verdi 3 debugger.
Everything I saw and heard at the San Jose SNUG'14 said
this was not the case."
- Graham Bell of RealIntent about ESNUG 537 #10
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- A private kudos goes out to SNPS Co-CEO Chi-Foon Chan. I was there
waaay back in 1996 when he first proposed DesignWare IP.
 
Everyone there looked at Chi-Foon like he had three heads. Now 17
years later, DW USB IP has its 3,000th design win, and DW PCI-E has
its 1,000th design win. Not bad for a crazy idea people laughed at.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- Last week a spy in China had reported that Cadence was launching
a new tool called "Voltus-Fi" at the CDNlive Shanghai Users Group.
  
Voltus-Fi is a transister-level electromigration and IR-drop tool
which competes head-on against Ansys/Apache Totem. And with the
Voltus vs. Redhawk user benchmarks in ESNUG 534 #1 and 541 #1,
there's no doubt left that CDNS Anirudh Devgan is going directly
after the Apache carcass now that ex-Apache CEO Andrew Yang's gone.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- FUN QUOTE
"The latest unconfirmed stories floating around say that
GlobalFoundries walked away from IBM's proposal to sell
its East Fishkill and Burlington fabs for $2 billion,
saying the price was too high."
- Rick Merritt, Editor (EET 08/04/14)
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- Lip-Bu is taking a second run at Synopsys HAPS in the FPGA rapid
prototyping homebrew kit biz by announcing his CDNS Protium. Both
CDNS and SNPS kits are based on Xilinx Virtex-7's which customers
buy and assemble on their own.
 
The older Cadence kit was RPP, which could only do 25 M ASIC gates.
The CDNS datasheet claims the new Protium can do 100 M gates. In
contrast, SNPS HAPS-70 can do 144 M gates -- which is somewhat odd.
Why would Cadence launch a later kit with less capacity? Don't tech
companies usually try to technologically leapfrog each other, no???
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- USER QUESTION
"I noticed that the Pyxis custom router is still listed on the
Mentor web site. Is it still being used? If yes, by whom?"
- an Anon EDA User
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
- FUN HISTORY: A little over 3 years ago in his keynote address at the
Boston SNUG'11, Aart de Geus launched TLMcentral.com. The idea was
for Synopsys to promote (and control) the TLM models business.
"At this point what can TLMCentral.com offer? To SystemC users
a convenient place to find IP related to TLM use. To Synopsys
a list of emails, a way to build relationships with IP providers
and, above all, an additional marketing tool in the mission to
own the Virtual Prototyping market."
- EDA Editor Gabe Moretti (GOE 10/18/11)
Four months later, on 02/07/12, Moretti follows up TLMcentral.com
only had 326 registered users.
  
Then on 11/06/13, 21 months after that, Synopsys declared "victory"
with no quotes from Aart and little fanfare as it quietly moved the
TLMcentral.com content into Gabriele Saucier's Design-Reuse.com.
I think it's hilarious how Aart's people tried to indirectly take
on the Iron Lady of IP, only to be quietly surrendering to her a
mere 3 years later. My congrats to Gabriele. :)
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
And again, feel free to comment/correct/scold/question anything you see here
by just emailing me directly. And, yes, you'll be ANONYMOUS!
- John Cooley
DeepChip.com Holliston, MA
Join
Index
Next->Item
|
|
