NXP acquires Athena; Lattice finalizes Silicon Image buy; Cadence’s new physical implementation tool; Synopsys updates emulation software, wins Galaxy deals; ANSYS strikes deal with ClariPhy.
Mergers & Acquisitions
NXP added to its list of recent acquisitions with Athena SCS, a UK-based provider of embedded software and cryptography for smart cards and NFC.
Lattice Semiconductor closed its all-cash $606.6 million acquisition of Silicon Image.
Tools
Cadence unveiled the Innovus Implementation System. The physical implementation tool sports massively parallel architecture and, says Cadence, provides typically 10% to 20% better PPA and up to 10X reduction in turnaround time. The list of those jumping in at launch includes ARM, Freescale, Juniper, MaxLinear, Renesas, and Spreadtrum.
Synopsys released a new version of its ZeBu Server emulation software without the two features found to infringe on a Mentor Graphics patent, but with technology it claims offers up to 3X faster compile performance.
IP
Synopsys uncorked verification IP for the MIPI Alliance SoundWire 1.0 specification. The VIP is based on a native SystemVerilog UVM architecture and offers verification plans, built-in coverage and support for protocol-aware debug.
Deals
Synopsys’ Galaxy Design Platform enabled 90% of the production tapeouts of FinFET-based designs. Among the 20+ companies who completed tapeouts using the suite is HiSilicon Technologies, which deployed it for implementation of their ARM Cortex-A72, Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 FinFET designs targeting TSMC’s 16nm process technology.
Toshiba also utilized Synopsys’ IC Compiler II place and route tool to aid tapeout of an advanced 40-nm SoC. Based on the success, Toshiba has commenced rollout of their IC Compiler II-based design kit among other design teams.
ANSYS struck a deal with ClariPhy, which will use ANSYS RedHawk for power, noise and reliability sign-off on its 400G networking SoCs.
Synopsys and Hardent teamed up on a compliant and interoperable Display Serial Interface solution to reduce the data transmission bandwidth in UHD mobile devices.
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