IN THE NEWS

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

In the News

Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (Santa Clara, CA) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Virtual Chips Inc. (San Jose, CA). Phoenix will transfer approximately 1.39 million shares of newly issued common stock, valued at approximately $20 million to complete the agreement. This acquisition agreement is subject to the approval of Virtual Chips' stockholders. Virtual Chips will become part of Phoenix's Special Products Division, which supplies products and services enabling computer interconnect standards and special purpose system devices.

Actel Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA) and Synopsys .com/isdweb/&lf=isd-sendtolog"> Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, CA) announced an alliance to develop system programmable gate arrays (SPGAs) that will combine features of FPGAs and ASICs in a single chip. Actel will license Synopsys .com/isdweb/&lf=isd-sendtolog"> Synopsys ' cell-based array (CBA) architecture, and the two companies will jointly adapt CBA technology specifically to support SPGAs.

VLSI Technology Inc. (San Jose, CA) signed a partnership agreement with SigmaTel Inc. (Austin, TX). VLSI acquired rights to use SigmaTel audio codec technology in custom and standard VLSI products, and they will work with SigmaTel to develop future mixed-signal integrated circuit products and technologies. VLSI will also act as a manufacturing source for SigmaTel-branded products.

High Level Design Systems Inc. (HLDS) of Santa Clara, CA, and OEA International Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) announced an original equipment manufacturer agreement that combines OEA's 2-D field solver technology with HLDS' deep submicron RC-extraction tool, HyperExtract. Under the terms of the agreement, HLDS will integrate and distribute OEA's core METAL 2-D capacitance field solver. The field solver technology will be integrated with HLDS' HyperExtract deep submicron RC-extraction system.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) and its North American affiliate Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) have provided venture capital funding to found a Silicon Valley start-up company called VSIS Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA). The start-up is structured as a small, nimble, and autonomous company that offers market-evaluation services for advanced hardware and software product concepts as well as provides design services from concept and definition to system-behavioral models.

VLSI Technology Inc. (San Jose, CA) and Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced an agreement under which VLSI will license Hitachi's SuperH RISC engine 32-bit microprocessors for incorporation in VLSI's libraries of system-level integration functional-system blocks.

Cadence Design Systems Inc. (San Jose, CA) and Motorola's Customer Specified Integrated Circuits (CSIC) Microcontroller Division (Austin, TX) announced the successful completion of a two-year project aimed at reducing the turnaround time for customers of Motorola's 68HC08 product line. With the assistance of design process optimization services and design automation technology from Cadence, Motorola was able to introduce its "7-Day CSIC" design methodology this week. The two companies also said that they will work together to extend the applicability of the 7-day design methodology to other products in Motorola's microcontroller family.

Market research firm VLSI Research Inc. (San Jose, CA) predicts that the U.S. semiconductor book-to-bill ratio will continue inching its way back to 1.0. However, the semiconductor equipment makers' ratio maintains its downward drift as IC makers prolong their conservative investment in new capacity.

Movers and Shakers

I-Cube Inc. (Campbell, CA) appointed Kevin Daroca vice president of sales.

Viewlogic Systems Inc. (Marlboro, MA) appointed Shiv Tasker senior vice president of marketing, and David Adey vice president of human resources.

VHDL International's (Santa Clara, CA) board of directors elected Dieter Mezger , president of Compass Design Automation (San Jose, CA), as its chairman.

Chip Express (Santa Clara, CA) appointed Fred Bialek to its board of directors.

Mark Bagby has joined Simplex Solutions Inc. (San Jose, CA) as the company's director of finance.

Money Bits

Viewlogic Systems Inc. (Marlboro, MA) reported a net income of $2.0 million, or $0.12 per share, for Q2 of 1996. This compares to $1.5 million, or $0.9 per share, for the same period last year. Revenues for Q2, 1996 were $32.5 million, compared to $29.1 million reported in the same period last year.

Cooper and Chyan Inc. (Cupertino, CA) reported its Q2, 1996 sales increased 91 percent to $7.0 million, compared to $3.7 million in the same period last year. Net income increased to $1.2 million, or $0.9 per share on 20 percent more common shares outstanding, compared to $13,000 in Q2, 1995.

Avant! Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA) reported Q2, 1996 revenue of $14.13 million, a 59 percent increase over Q2, 1995 revenue of $8.87 million. In addition, they reported net income of $2.91 million or $0.17 per share, a 46 percent increase over Q2, 1995 net income of $1.99 million, or $0.13 per share.

Sun Microsystems Inc. (Mountain View, CA) reported Q4 revenues of $2.02 billion, up 22 percent compared to Q4 of fiscal 1995. Q4 earnings per share, excluding one-time acquisition-related charges, reached $0.85, an increase of almost 35 percent from the previous year's result.

California Micro Devices Corp. (CMD) of Milpitas, CA, reported net income of $332,000, or $0.03 per share, on revenues of $9.6 million for Q1, 1997. This is compared to $517,000, or $0.05 per share, on revenues of $8.6 million, for Q1 of 1996.

Mitel Corp. (Kanata, Ontario, Canada) announced net income of $10.7 million, or $0.09 per share, for Q1 of 1997, compared to $9.6 million, or $0.08 cents per share, for the same quarter last year. Sales were $158.1 million for Q1 of 1997, representing an increase of 16 percent over sales of $136.2 million for the same quarter last year.

Editorial Call

In December's issue, Integrated System Design will run a Focus Report on field programmable devices. If you wish to be listed in the table, please contact Michael Santarini by August 20 at (415) 903-0148 or e-mail michael@asic.com.

To voice an opinion on this or any Integrated System Design article, please e-mail your message to michael@asic.com.

integrated system design  September 1996