Subject: Magma financial calls confirm Synopsys SPICE is losing to FineSim

> 2.) Rumor has it Samsung Memory and Samsung Logic both used to be 100%
>     Synopsys HSPICE/CustomSim/HSIM/NanoSim/XA houses until two benchmarks
>     caused Samsung Memory to go 100% and Samsung Logic to go 50% Magma
>     Finesim.  That's an est new $15 M / year for 3 years going to LAVA!
>     Why?  Magma's DAC write-up says it all: "Finesim's the only fast-SPICE
>     today that runs on multi-CPUs/multi-machines.  One customer taped-out
>     a 1.5 M transistor design that ran on 8 CPUs in 4 days, and 1 day on
>     32 CPUs.  Adding RF (harmonic balance) this year.  In one benchmark
>     Finesim averaged 3X faster vs Synopsys XA, 3.2X faster vs Spectre APS.
>     In another, 6X faster vs HSPICE and Spectre couldn't run the design."
>     Toshiba, Hynix, Micron, Sandisk, IDT, TI, TSMC, Maxim, Melfas use it.
>     (booth 1743)  Ask for Greg Curtis.  Freebie: ear buds
>
>         - http://www.deepchip.com/gadfly/gad060211.html


From: [ The Mouse That Roared ]

Hi John,

Please keep this post anonymous.

I saw your post on Samsung Memory going 100% and Samsung Logic going 50%
from Synopsys HSPICE/HSIM/CustomSim to Magma FineSim.

Magma's been taking business from Synopsys elsewhere, too.  Here are the
highlights from Rajeev's last three quarterly earnings calls:

  Business:

      - FineSim getting adoption predominately with FLASH memory,
        DRAM and analog IP companies.
      - FineSim being used in 4 out of top 5 DRAM companies, 5 of
        top 6 FLASH memory companies
      - 70% of the top 15 memory providers use FineSim
      - 14 of top 20 chip companies use FineSim, and room for further
        penetration at these companies as Synopsys contracts come up
        for renewal.
      - 120 total FineSim customer companies
      - LAVA forecasting ** $80 million ** annual bookings run rate
        with FineSim

  Product:

      - FineSim customers seeing a 30x-50x speed advantage over Synopsys
      - Magma continues to invest in FineSim; it's noe 10x faster since
        its initial release and 3x faster in the last quarter

Knowing Magma's history in discounting, $80 million in FineSim business will
probably cost Synopsys an additional 20%-40% per year.

Cadence acquired Altos in May, so knowing that it takes a few months to
digest any acquisition, I expect we will also see Cadence starting to eat
into the Synopsys HSPICE/HSIM franchise later this year.

    - [ The Mouse That Roared ]