( SNUG 03 Item 23 ) ---------------------------------------------- [05/14/03]
Subject: User Reactions To The Synopsys/Avanti/Numerical Mergers
NO MORE FEET OF CLAY: While most users have no reaction to the Synopsys
and Numerical merger, there was a very noticable collective sigh of relief
to the Synopsys/Avanti merger. First off, before Synopsys had come onto
the scene, Avanti users had been actively panic shopping for alternate P&R
tools just in case Cadence's lawyers were successful in destroying Avanti.
(See DAC 01 #31 and ESNUG 384 #15.) Synopsys acquiring Avanti suddenly now
put those fears to bed because Synopsys deep pockets would keep the Avanti
tools safe. The other two major user reactions were "Yaay! Now we'll get
the higher Synopsys level of customer support for Avanti tools!" and "Thank
God! Now we'll the higher level of QA for Avanti tools!" Avanti no longer
had legal, customer support, nor QA feet of clay. The big question now is
how long will it take to get all those native Synopsys tools robustly
working on the Avanti Milkyway database?
"The statue's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver,
his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of
iron and part of clay."
- the Book of Daniel 2:32-33
"If Avanti had not merged with Synopsys we would not even consider
Avanti as a candidate for renewing our P&R tools. The old Avanti
sales policy was horrendous, their after sales support apalling,
their documentation a joke. You may have guessed we were a small
customer (if the price of any P&R tool can be considered small.)
When the merger occurred, Synopsys was very quick to rectify all
of the old Avanti sales and post sales support issues. We are most
definately dealing with a more proffessional company now."
- Craig Farnsworth of Cogency Semiconductors
"From a customer viewpoint, the Synopsys & Avanti support number is
now just one phone number and email address. The finger pointing
is at least reduced to departments within one company.
The merger so far has produced an open database for all SNPS and Avanti
tools to communicate together in a nice fashion. It's a starting
point, but that's a really useful building block to get right. It will
be great when other tools like PrimeTime reads the Milkyway database
directly rather than go through incantations of SPEF/DSPF extractions."
- Gregg Lahti of Microchip
"Synopsys/Avanti may make a good marriage, largely because it blends the
two suites that we currently use. Time will tell what Synopsys does to
mess up the tools that they got. (Remember MOTIVE that Synopsys bought
and killed? It was FAR better than Primetime for debugging.)"
- Bob Lawrence of Agere Systems
"The Avanti merger I'd say did go part way towards rehabilitating or
bringing some respect back to the Avanti products, after the Cadence
suit. But at expense of Synopsys's own reputation and future.
Does Synopsys's insurance cover against future judgements from the
inevitable vermin-laywer drummed-up Avanti class-action lawsuits?"
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"The good news is that there is no more finger-pointing between
Avanti and Synopsys. The better news is that Avanti support is
growing to the Synposys standards.
The bad news is that Synopsys has become the industry giant and a
huge monopoly. Cadence is really the only alternative (for backend)
unless you are willing to piece from different vendors and integrate
yourself. Hard to do for single-seat design establishments."
- Roberto Landrau of Mitre
"It is a good long term investment on Numerical. SNPS/AVNT is a good
merger but they tried hard on the price which gave Magma a good chance
on BRCM and TI."
- John Zhang of Broadcom
"Can't speak about Synopsys/Numerical, but Synopsys/Avanti has worked
out better than I expected."
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"The real test of the Synopsys/Avanti merger is how they tie all of
their implementation tools (PrimeTime is considered an implementation
tool) to Milkyway. Whether or not the implementation tools are
integrated well within the Galaxy implementation platform might not
be as much of an issue to customers when compared to the actual
integration of the implementation tools to Milkyway.
From a customer's perspective and with regards to the tools, there
is still a lot of work to be done to smoothen out the P&R flow. Maybe
we'll know the quality of the P&R tools integration towards the second
half of this year. A common question I've come across is what will
happen to Astro CTS and Synopsys ClockTree Compiler."
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"The Synopsys/Numerical merger is really a non-event. It gives them
a complete path through to silicon, but it isn't with one of the
stronger players."
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"Synopsys should've purchased Silicon Perspectives instead of Numerical.
I have no strong opinion about Numerical, except that Synopsys now has
two sets of library layout tools (Cadabra and Avanti).
The Synopsys/Avanti merger made a lot of sense, with very little
overlap between the two tool sets."
- Philippe Duquennois of Philips
"Synopsys/Avanti: Nothing horrible has happened so far..."
- Dave Chapman of Goldmountain Consulting
"I wish Synopsys could develop a real 1 pass flow."
- Tie Li of Applause Technolgy
"Synopsys Avanti merger definitely makes us happy. Avanti stable."
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"We like both mergers as it streamlines the business side a lot."
- Wilson Chan of Qualcomm
"I am little bummed about the Synopsys Avanti merger. Seems like we
are on-track for the arrival of Microsoft in the EDA world. Sure hope
Cadence is not another Apple."
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"I'm eagerly waiting to see benefits from the Synopsys/Avanti merger.
I still think this was a good thing. There are still key areas where
they have redundant technologies, like the router, design planner,
clock tree synthesis..."
- Neel Das of Corrent Corp.
"I have no opinion on the Numerical merger, but the Avanti merger has
been good for all (except Cadence and Magma). Documentation is
improving, support is equivalent or better and improving, the tool
quality is getting better and the key integration is starting to
take place."
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"For Synopsys/Numerical, I think the jury is still out, although it
might be argued that it was wise from the standpoint of keeping
it out of Cadence hands. I don't think Numerical had anything to
offer in the RET/OPC space, but I am not sure about farther along
into the mask fracturing space. Numerical might have had more to
offer there - but that is a little removed from what I work with.
As far as the Synopsys/Avanti merger, I am somewhere between happy
and indifferent. On the one hand the merger allowed for us to
renegotiate our license agreements for the Hercules stuff with better
terms because we could leverage our other Synopsys purchases. Other
than that, it really has not had much of an effect, other than I deal
with some different sales people. Synopsys has promised to pump a
lot more into Hercules R&D, but I have not seen any fruits from that;
and would not expect to for another 6 months at least."
- Terry Lowe of IBM Microelectronics
"I am interested to see what Synopsys will do with Avanti's toolset."
- Amanda Reddy of Micron
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