( DAC 00 Item 33 ) --------------------------------------------- [ 7/13/00 ]
Subject: Monterey 'Dolphin' and 'SONAR'
RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP: In stark contrast to Magma's media-blitz approach to
the EDA buying market, Monterey has run in quasi-stealth mode with nary a
peep from their PR people or their customers. (OK, there was that one minor
TI thing, but that was was coupled with TI also supporting Synopsys Physical
Compiler at the same time.) And just like all but one of their competitors,
(Synopsys), Monterey lacks a verifiable customer tape-out story. And unlike
Magma and Cadence PKS, Monterey has honorably shied away from playing the
sleazy "we got tape-out but we just can't get customers to talk about them"
ruse. On the technical side, Monterey offered a new stand alone tool called
"Dolphin" at DAC. And it appears that Monterey also must have at least one
idiot board member who has obviously pushed them into wasting time crafting
a full blown Internet strategy when they could have instead used those
precious engineering resources on making their main product functional.
"OK, so we have nothing that works, but at least now we can get it to you on
a per hour basis using the latest Internet technology!!!" (As if high end
designers actually want their company's next-generation cutting edge
proprietary designs floating across the Internet... Duh...)
Be sure to check out the Magma part of this Trip Report; five interesting
user quotes there discussed Monterey, too.
"-Monterey Dolphin: still lacking a full ECO capability makes me wonder
how they want to survive. They now offer a design-feasibility-checker
called SONAR, but as a separate tool with almost no link to Dolphin."
- an anon engineer
"Magma gave the worst presentation on Signal Integrity, didn't look like
they had much there.
Monterey really has it together. Instead of overmarketing vaporware
like Magma, they actually have thought about the tool and have been
quietly refining it. They look really good. Anybody who was good from
Ambit has gone to Monterey."
- an anon engineer
"* Monterey: Introduced a new detailed floorplanning capability.
Basically a repackaging of their existing functions for the purpose of
floorplanning. The progress seemed slow, mainly because they grossly
exaggerated their claims at the last DAC."
- an anon engineer
"The Monterey toolset is a competitor to Magma and Physical Compiler and
offers a complete physical design system. The Dolphin tool is the
physical P&R tool and Sonar is a new prototyping tool. Monterey is
now providing an e-business model hich includes H/W, S/W, network
infrastructure, and application support for customers."
- an anon engineer
"My vote is Magma or Synopsys Physical Compiler will win. (Monterey is
too low level.)"
- an anon engineer
"PhysOpt is very interesting, but it doesn't fit into our design flow yet
because of foundry requirements.
Magma looks like just another timing-driven backend tool, maybe I missed
something but I didn't see how it was any different from Cadence SE or
Avanti.
Monterey's RTL to GDS synthesis sounds too good to be true. I'm very
skeptical."
- an anon engineer
|
|
