The Week In Review: Design/IoT

Mergers & Acquistions

Silicon Labs acquired Bluegiga Technologies Oy, providers of short-range wireless connectivity solutions and software for the IoT based in Espoo, Finland.

Intel signed a definitive agreement to acquire Lantiq, a supplier of broadband access and home networking technologies based in Munich, Germany.

Tools

Mentor Graphics announced the addition of Automotive Ethernet support in the Volcano Vehicle System Architecture product, expanding its capabilities for designing hybrid networks in both AUTOSAR-based and non-AUTOSAR electronic control units.

IP

ARM introduced a new IP suite based on the new Cortex-A72 processor, which ARM claims has a 50X increase in CPU performance over processors from five years ago. Also included is a new interconnect and a new GPU. HiSilicon, MediaTek and Rockchip are among initial licensees. Both Synopsys and Cadence have announced reference flows for the new suite.

Synopsys rolled out verification IP for the 25G/50G Ethernet specification. The new VIP is based on native SystemVerilog UVM architecture.

Financial

Cadence reported Q4 and fiscal year 2014 results. In Q4 revenue was $423 million, up from $377 million for Q4 2013. Net income for the quarter was $65 million, a large increase over the $38 million generated for the same period in 2013. Revenue for 2014 totaled $1.581 billion, up from $1.460 billion in 2013. Net income for the year was $159 million, down from $164 million in 2013. Cadence’s IP business saw a revenue growth of nearly 40 percent. For 2015, the company expects total revenue in the range of $1.680 billion to $1.720 billion.

NXP released Q4 and fiscal year 2014 results. Fourth quarter revenue was $1.54 billion, a 1.5% sequential increase, and nearly a 19% increase from the same period in 2013. Yearly revenue was $5.65 billion, an increase of 17% year-on-year, and NXP says all business lines achieved new historic revenue levels.

Deals

Rambus and MStar signed a license agreement for the inclusion of Rambus Cryptography Research division’s advanced DPA countermeasure technologies in MStar’s products, including tamper-resistant set-top box chipsets.

Andes Technology said Weltrend Semiconductor adopted its CPU IP for a new SoC, aimed at the expanding brushless DC motor (BLDC) controller market.

Ansys won a deal with NXP, which used its tools to model various noise sources and simulate their interaction in the development of its in-car digital radio SoC.

M31 Technology adopted Cadence’s verification IP for PCI Express 2.0 and TripleCheck for verification closure and comprehensive specification coverage of their IP products.

Cadence licensed the ARM Frame Buffer Compression protocol to enhance the Tensilica Image Video Processing DSP for use with the ARM Mali media IP suite. The agreement also allows Cadence Display Transmitter PHY to support the new Mali media IP suite.