The Week In Review: Design

M&A
Alibaba acquired C-Sky Microsystems, which focuses on 32-bit embedded CPU IP cores in both low power and high performance varieties, as well as SoC and MCU platforms. Founded in 2001, the Hangzhou, China-based C-Sky previously received investment from Alibaba, and the two companies collaborated on a hardware and software platform for IoT and cloud integration. The deal comes on the heels of an announcement that the internet and e-commerce giant is developing its own neural network chip for use on its cloud platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cyient, an engineering, manufacturing, and GIS services provider, acquired Belgian fabless firm AnSem for $17 million in an all-cash deal. Founded in 1998 as a spin-off of the university of Leuven with the support of Imec, AnSem focused on custom analog and mixed-signal ASICs. Cyient sees the acquisition as a way to help its clients develop smart analog sensors to capture data for industrial, automotive, and medical applications.

Tools
The MIPI Alliance debuted new specification detailing a common data format for transmitting software trace and debug information between a test system and a device. MIPI System Software Trace (MIPI SyS-T) aims to provide a vendor- and OS-agnostic solution for developers across the embedded software ecosystem, according to MIPI chairman Joel Huloux, and can be used with any MIPI Alliance debugging tool or transport protocol. The specification is publicly available.

PLDA launched a new Test and Validation Platform line of products for PCIe 4.0 design. The line includes an interposer module for in-system PCIe link diagnostic and add-in card testing, PCIe 4.0 endpoint adapter card and switch adapter card, plus an FPGA prototyping card.

Deals
Brazilian avionics company Embraer used ANSYS’ software to develop and simulate the embedded software and generate the embedded code used to control the primary flight control system in its new E190-E2 aircraft.

Numbers
Cadence released first quarter financial results with revenue of $517 million. Earnings per share for Q1 2018 were $0.26 on a GAAP basis and $0.40 non-GAAP. The company changed to a new reporting standard; under the previous rules, revenue was $525 million for the quarter, up 10% from the same quarter last year. GAAP income per share for Q1 2018 was $0.30, up 20% from $0.25 in Q1 2017, while non-GAAP income per share was $0.44, up 37.5% from $0.32. Cadence raised its forecast and now expects revenue in the range of $2.055 billion to $2.085 billion for 2018.

People
Anne Cirkel has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the Marie R. Pistilli Women in Electronic Design Award. Cirkel is the senior director technology marketing at Mentor, a Siemens Business, and served as general chair for DAC in 2015. She also represented the Electronics Systems Design Alliance for more than 10 years on the DATE executive committees and served on the program committee of Embedded World.

Achronix opened a new, larger corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, CA. The FPGA and eFPGA company stated 700% year-over-year revenue growth with plans to expand its headcount and is making an investment in FPGAs that will be built on TSMC’s 7nm process technology.