( SNUG 03 Item 3 ) ----------------------------------------------- [05/14/03]
Subject: Customers Rate The Best & The Worst Synopsys/Avanti Tools
READING THE TEA LEAVES: The best way to find out what's hot and what's not
is to directly ask the users. Because two years ago, back in SNUG'01, 321
answered the 2001 survey, I proportionally scale every year's responses to
321 responses here. Out of the 549 users attending this year's SNUG'03,
176 answered this best & worst Synopsys tools question, so I scaled their
answers by 321/176 to enable apples-to-apples year-to-year comparisions.
"Which Synopsys product(s) are you *most* satisfied with? (write in)"
Design Compiler '01 #########################S S################### 143
Design Compiler '02 #########################S S################### 132
Design Compiler '03 #########################S S################### 106
PrimeTime '01 #################################### 72
PrimeTime '02 ############################################# 91
PrimeTime '03 ####################################### 78
PhysOpt '01 ########### 22
PhysOpt '02 ##################### 42
PhysOpt '03 ################################# 66
VCS '01 ############## 28
VCS '02 ##################### 41
VCS '03 ################### 38
Vera '01 ## 4
Vera '02 ####### 13
Vera '03 ######## 15
TetraMAX '01 ###### 11
TetraMAX '02 ###### 12
TetraMAX '02 ######### 18
Module Compiler '01 ### 5
Module Compiler '02 # 2
Module Compiler '03 0
SystemC '02 # 2
DirectC '03 1
FPGA Compiler II '01 ## 4
FPGA Compiler II '02 1
FPGA Compiler II '03 0
Scirocco '01 # 2
Scirocco '02 1
Scirocco '03 0
Formality '01 # 2
Formality '02 1
Formality '03 1
DFT Compiler '02 1
DFT Compiler '03 ### 5
SocBIST, NanoSim
Mixed Signal, DW '03 1
Avanti Apollo '03 ### 7
Avanti Astro '03 ######## 16
Avanti Star-RCXT '03 ## 4
Avanti Jupiter '03 ## 4
Avanti Saber '03 ## 4
Avanti Hercules '03 ## 4
One of the first things you see here is that the math still works out. That
is, Synopsys added a whole suite of Avanti tools, so it makes sense that the
number of people ranking the top line Synopsys tools like DC, PrimeTime, and
VCS is going to go down because all those new Avanti tools are now taking
some of the first place seats in customer's eyes. (DC, PrimeTime, & VCS all
together lost 40 "best" votes, but the Avanti tools added 40 "best" votes in
total. It's an expected dilution for DC, PrimeTime, & VCS.)
Anyway even with the slightly diluted numbers, Synopsys customers appear to
be happier this year with PhysOpt, TetraMAX, & DFT Compiler. In the Avanti
tools category, it's interesting to notice 7 people rated the old Apollo as
"best" and 16 people rated the Astro replacement as "best". That's not too
surprising because I guestimate that only about half of the Apollo seats
have switched over to Astro. People like to stick with the devil they know.
"Which Synopsys product(s) are you *least* satisfied with? (write in)"
Design Compiler '01 ######## 15
Design Compiler '02 ####### 13
Design Compiler '03 ######## 16
PrimeTime '01 #### 8
PrimeTime '02 ###### 12
PrimeTime '03 ### 6
PhysOpt '01 ##### 10
PhysOpt '02 ##### 10
PhysOpt '03 ####### 13
Floorplan Compiler '03 ####### 14
VCS '01 ##### 9
VCS '02 ### 6
VCS '03 ### 6
Vera '01 # 2
Vera '02 # 2
Vera '03 ## 4
Formality '01 ###### 12
Formality '02 ############ 23
Formality '03 ########## 20
TetraMAX '01 ## 4
TetraMAX '02 ##### 10
TetraMAX '03 ## 4
BSD Compiler '01 # 2
BSD Compiler '02 ### 5
BSD Compiler '03 #### 8
Test Compiler '01 ### 6
Test Compiler '02 1
Test Compiler '03 ### 6
Power Compiler '01 # 1
Power Compiler '02 ### 5
Power Compiler '03 ### 6
FPGA Compiler II '01 ### 6
FPGA Compiler II '02 # 2
FPGA Compiler II '03 #### 8
Design Analyzer '01 ## 5
Design Analyzer '02 1
Design Vision '03 ## 4
LEDA '03 ### 6
Module Compiler '03 ## 4
PrimePower '03 ### 6
DesignWare '03 ## 3
CoreConsultant '03 # 2
VCS-MX, DC-FPGA
PT-SI, Presto
BC, StarSim
VirSim, Ketchum '03 1
Avanti Apollo '03 ### 7
Avanti Astro '03 ######### 18
Avanti Astro CTS '03 ### 6
Avanti Star-RCXT '03 ## 5
Avanti ExploreRTL '03 ### 6
Avanti Jupiter '03 ## 4
Avanti Hercules '03 ## 4
First off, Floorplan Compiler has 0 positive, 14 negative votes; it still
major league sucks. The ghost of Chip Architect still haunts them?
LEDA just jumped up with 0 pos and 6 neg votes. Something's up there. It
doesn't have many users, so 6 negs makes LEDA really stand out here.
Avanti ExploreRTL, the old Verilint tool they acquired, also got 0 pos and
6 negs. Appears Avanti stopped supporting Verilint once they bought it.
PrimePower also newly went 0 - 6 this year. Something's up.
BSD Compiler has a worst 0 - 8 problem; it must really suck.
Module Compiler just went 0 - 4. It used to be 3 - 0. Ouch.
CoreConsultant just suddenly poped up at 0 - 2 this year. Like LEDA, it has
only a handful of users worldwide, so something's up w/ CoreConsultant, too.
Formality is still in trouble. Only 1 or 2 people have ever rated it as a
"best" Synopsys tool. This year 20 people hated it. Ouch.
On the positive side, PhysOpt did even better this year. In 2001 PhysOpt,
was 22 - 10, a 2.2 ratio. Last year it went 42 - 10, a 4.2 ratio. This
year, it's gone 66 - 13, a 5.1 ratio. More people use PhysOpt and a bigger
percentage of those who do use PhysOpt, like PhysOpt.
In their cash cow tools, Synopsys did quite well as usual, too. Good olde
DC, PrimeTime, and VCS averaged 8 "best" votes for every 1 "worst" vote
they got. No big news here.
Last year, TetraMAX was 12 - 10, a 1.2 ratio. This year TetraMAX jumped up
to 18 - 4, a whopping 4.5 ratio. Huge gain there. Last year, DFT Compiler
was 1 - 0. This year it's 5 - 0. Looking good.
For the physical Avanti tools, Astro was 16 - 18. What was fun here were
the 7 users who listed Astro as *simultaneously* the best *and* the worst
Synopsys product. Classic for hot green code. Astro CTS was 0 - 6. Guess
it ain't working yet. Apollo was 7 - 7. Hercules 4 - 4. Jupiter 4 - 4.
The one undisputed Avanti bright spot was Saber that came in at 4 - 0.
Overall it appears that Synopsys has its hands full bringing the Avanti
tools up to snuff. In terms of user best/worst ratings, Avanti tools rate
sub par (below a 1 to 1 ratio). Altogether this year's Avanti tools got 39
"best" votes and 51 "worst" votes, a 0.76 ratio. Ouch! In contrast, last
year's Synopsys tools got 344 - 131, a 2.63 ratio overall.
Avanti and Floorplan Compiler have dragged down Synopsys as a whole. This
year as a total Synopsys went 371 - 194, a 1.91 ratio. Take out the Avanti
tools, it becomes 332 - 143, a 2.3 ratio. Also remove Floorplan Compiler,
then it's 332 - 129 and Synopsys is back to a happy 2.57 ratio. Synopsys
has got to clean up Floorplan Compiler and the Avanti toolset.
My barking about a 1.9 or a 2.6 ratio, either way it's important to note
that the ratios *should* have been 1 to 1. That is, the users went out of
their way to list extra "best" Synopsys tools in the survey. Even with the
Avanti hit, Synopsys still has customers saying it roughly has 2 "best"
tools for every "worst" tool. Not a bad place to be in.
"Sometimes you need to take one step backwards to take two steps
forward."
- Vladimer Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Russian Communist
revolution, 1921
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