I got a scoop on the new Synopsys Virtuoso-killer, "Orion".

A few years ago Synopsys hired roughly 10 to 15 ex-Cadence Virtuoso R&D guys
plus ballpark 80 to 100 other R&D guys.  Back in DAC 2006 in San Francisco
they showed "Copernicus" in an NDA-only demo.  It was a complete disaster.
Synopsys fired the management of Copernicus.

For the past 2 years, Mike Santarini and I caught a few whiffs that there
was a "Copernicus II" in the works at Synopsys.

Then last March at SNUG 2008, Aart demoed "Orion" live to hundreds of users
in his keynote address.

Now, at next week's DAC, I've heard rumor that Synopsys will be officially
releasing "Orion" -- what it's new name will be, I don't know.

What "Orion" does:

  - It's native Open Access based.  No API used.  No proprietary database
    used.  Concerning CDBA, I can't get a straight answer as to whether
    or not Orion can directly read/write it or not.  (Legal mess here!)

  - Because it's OA, it's interoperable with AWR Analog Office, Ciranova,
    Mentor Calibre, SiCanvas/Springsoft Laker, and possibly Magma.

  - Orion supports AEL expressions, global signals and buss expressions.

  - Orion supports Tcl, Python, or anything else open-sourced.

  - SKILL won't be supported.  (Again, probably for legal reasons.)

  - TSMC is rumored to have an interopt PDK for Orion.  Don't know
    about IBM/Samsung/Charter yet.

Some things I'm told Orion can do that Virtuoso can't do:

  - On-canvas editing.  Simply click on a net or a symbol and change
    its property or net name.  No need for pop-up dialogs.

  - Dynamic connectivity in the schematic.  You lay down a connection
    and it immediately gets assigned a net name or inherits the name
    of any net it connects to.

  - Dynamic net highlighting.  Mouse over a net and all nets with the
    same name light up, including globals.

  - The transaction history.  Lets you undo at any point in your design
    during the current session.

  - An object layer panel (Virtuoso calls it the LSW) per design.  This
    lets you open another design with different layers and see them with
    their proper stipple and fill patterns all in the same session. 

  - WYSIWYG for your Pcells.  Dynamically see what your Pcell will look
    like when you change its parameters without having to place it first.

So, basically, in a nutshell Orion will most likely have the look-and-feel
of Virtuoso that's familiar to the custom design crowd; but it'll have a
mess of additional new features thrown in with it.

Or at least that's what my sources tell me.  This could be all bullshit.
We'll see at DAC next week!  :)