IN THE NEWS

Business and technology news from the semiconductor and design tool industries.

NewsBytes

Aetrium Inc. (North St. Paul, MN) was named one of the Ten Best suppliers of test and measurement equipment for semiconductor manufacturers for the fourth consecutive year, in the 1995 Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by VLSI Research, Inc. in San Jose, CA.

American Microsystems Inc. (AMI; Pocatello, ID) now accepts VHDL-based gate-level netlists from its ASIC customers. AMI has transitioned to the ANSI/IEEE Standard 1076-1993, thus it no longer requires its customers to submit schematic diagrams of their designs.

ASSET Intertech Inc. (Richardson, TX) has acquired the ASSET boundary-scan diagnostic software unit from Texas Instruments. ASSET Intertech was formed by former TI employees who developed the ASSET software. The company has an existing customer base of more than 400 installed systems in 150 companies. TI, meanwhile, will continue to serve the same market.

ATG Technology Inc. (ATI; Ramsey, NJ) has acquired all rights to the INTELLIGEN Design for Testability System from Racal-Redac. ATI assumed all customer support and product development activities for the product.

The 32nd Design Automation Conference was held at Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA. June 12-16, 1995. It was attended by 15,400 users of EDA. A three-day Designer Track program, that described design methodologies and topics of interest for designers of electronic systems, attracted standing-room-only listeners.

Electronic Trend Publications (San Jose, CA) has issued a report, Compression Technology Markets and Trends , which explores the markets for compression technology, in the rapid, accurate, and inexpensive transmission of digital information -- whether it be data, audio, or video. The price is $1795, extra copies $250.

European Silicon Structures (ES2; France) has acquired the rights to the ARM7DMI 32-bit RISC processor from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. (ARM; Cambridge, UK) ES2 will implement this processor as an embedded core in its 0.8-ým dual-metal CMOS process.

The Test Software Division of Integrated Measurement Systems Inc. (IMS; Beaverton, OR) and Credence Systems Corporation (Fremont, CA) have announced a Virtual Test partnership agreement. IMS will develop hardware based on its Dantes system to work with the Duo digital mixed-signal test system, a Credence product. The combination will enable test engineers to capture test intent graphically, generate Duo test programs automatically, and verify the test program and fixture before applying it to a chip.

Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, OR) has received a $5.5 million order from Advanced Micro Devices (Sunnyvale, CA) for verification tools. In addition to the software tools, this new program allows AMD to convert node-locked licenses into a central pool of floating licenses for tools and support services that any of AMD's product teams can access with an e-mail or phone call.

A survey conducted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for Open Verilog International (OVI; Los Gatos, CA) revealed that 92 percent of the members who returned ballots favored making Verilog HDL an IEEE standard.

Technology Modeling Associates, Inc. (TMA; Palo Alto, CA) and Cadence Design Systems Inc. (San Jose, CA) have announced a partnership to link their software tools for deep submicron integrated-circuit design. In the partnership, the two companies will link TMA's Raphael interconnect analysis software with Cadence's Dracula software for physical verification of ICs.

The University of California Extension (Berkeley, CA) will hold its annual Continuing Education in Engineering Conference in October, on the topic "Advanced Metalization and Interconnect Systems for ULSI Applications in 1995." The conference is in two parts: October 3-5 in Portland, OR, and October 24-25 in Tokyo, Japan; the fee is $400.

Wescon '95, has been scheduled for November 7-9, 1995, at Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA.

The semiconductor book-to-bill ratio remains above 1, though declining for June. VLSIResearch Inc. (San Jose, CA) predicts a further decline in July. Source: VLSI Research Inc.

Movers and Shakers

The VHDL International (VI) board of directors has voted to retain its existing slate of officers. The chairman is Fuad Musa, vice president and general manager of the System Design Division, Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, OR). President and treasurer is Robert Rozeboom, vice president, Semiconductor Group, Texas Instruments Inc. (Dallas, TX). Continuing as executive director is Mahendra Jain, on assignment from Compass Design Automation Inc. (San Jose, CA), where he is director of ASIC Vendor Relations. In addition, the Technical Advisory Committee will be headed by Victor Berman, manager of ASIC engineering at Cadence Design Systems, who replaces Stan Krolikoski of Compass.

Mike Schuh has joined the board of directors of Chronology .com/quickbench/isdpromo.html&lf=isd-sendtolog"> Chronology Corporation (Redmond, WA). He is the chief executive officer of Lighthouse Development Inc., and was previously with Cadence Design Systems, Calma Corp. and Daisy Corp. Mike McClure has been appointed vice president of marketing. He was previously marketing manager for Data I/O.

Donald H. Mohn is the new vice president for Telecommunications and Computing at TriQuint Semiconductor(Beaverton, OR). He comes from IC Works (San Jose, CA), where he was vice president of marketing; he replaces Dr. Gordon Cumming, who is now the vice president of technology at TriQuint, and Edward Winn, recently acting general manager of the computing division and now executive vice president and COO.

F. Grant Saviers has been promoted to president and chief executive officer at Adaptec (Milpitas, CA). He succeeds John G. Adler, who continues as chairman of the board. For three years, Saviers has been president and chief operating officer of Adaptec, and was previously with Digital Equipment Corp.

Ramon A. Nunez has been named president and chief executive officer at IKOS Systems Inc. (Cupertino, CA). He has been president and COO for about a year, and replaces Gerald S. Casilli, who remains as chairman of the board.

MoneyBits

Synopsis Inc. (Mountain View, CA) has acquired Arkos Design Systems (Scotts Valley, CA), a privately held company, for approximately $9.3 million. Arkos has developed technology for fast validation of ICs early in the design cycle. The technology promises to reduce the severe bottleneck experienced in design validation.

OrCAD Inc. (Beaverton, OR), has acquired Massteck Ltd. (Boxborough, MA), a producer of printed-circuit board layout and routing.

Atmel Corp. (San Jose, CA) reported record second-quarter revenues of $146,906,000 and income of $24,533,000. The figures represent a 63.6 percent increase in revenues and 74.9 percent increase in income over the second quarter of 1994. These results include the recent acquisition of European Silicon Structures.

SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Inc. (Saint Genis Pouilly, France) has become the number-one supplier of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, according to Dataquest Inc. SGS-Thomson's 1994 revenues exceeded $1 billion, an increase of 40 percent over 1993, and represent 7.8 percent of the worldwide market for analog ICs, which include devices for automotive, audio/video, and telecommunication applications.

Zilog Inc. reported second-quarter net sales of $66.7 million, up 20 percent from the second quarter of 1994, and net income of $10.9 million, up 27 percent. Zilog opened its new eight-inch submicron manufacturing plant in Idaho in June, from which production shipments are expected to begin in the third quarter.

Quickturn Design Systems Inc. (Mountain View, CA) has reported revenue of $19.6 million and net income of $2,151,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 1995. These figures represent increases of 35 percent and 150 percent respectively over the results for the second quarter of 1994. Revenue and net income for the first six months of 1995 were $37.6 million and $4,023,000 or 22 percent and 55 percent increases over 1994.

integrated system design  September 1995