IN THE NEWS

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

In the News

Synopsys .com/isdweb&If=isd-sendtolog"> Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, CA) announced the signing of a definitive agreement to merge with EPIC Design Technology Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA). The transaction is subject to the approval of each company's shareholders and regulatory approvals. Under the agreement, Synopsys .com/isdweb&If=isd-sendtolog"> Synopsys will issue 0.7485 of a share of its common stock for each outstanding share of EPIC. The merger is intended to be accounted for as a "pooling of interest" transaction. EPIC will be organized as a business unit at Synopsys .com/isdweb&If=isd-sendtolog"> Synopsys , reporting to Chi-Foon Chan, executive vice president, Office of the President. Sang Wang, chairman and CEO of EPIC, and Bernie Aronson, president of EPIC, will head the business unit as senior vice presidents, co-general managers. In addition, Sang Wang will be added to the Board of Directors of Synopsys .com/isdweb&If=isd-sendtolog"> Synopsys .

Quickturn Design Systems Inc. (Mountain View, CA) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to merge with SpeedSim Inc ., a privately-held software company based in Chelmsford, MA, specializing in cycle-based simulation technology. The combined company will carry the name "Quickturn Design Systems" and will be headquartered in Mountain View, with SpeedSim operating as a division of Quickturn. The merger is subject to regulatory approval.

Avant! Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA) announced the completion of its merger with FrontLine Design Automation Inc. (San Jose, CA). As consideration for the merger, Avant! issued to FrontLine security holders an aggregate of approximately 2.2 million shares and options to purchase Avant! common stock in exchange for all the outstanding shares and options of FrontLine. The merger transaction will be accounted for as a pooling of interests in the fourth quarter of 1996. Avant! will continue to support all FrontLine customers.

ST Assembly Test Services (San Jose, CA) has announced the opening of a design center that will help customers determine the packaging specifications for complex integrated circuits requiring ball grid array (BGA) packages. The design center, located at the company's facility in San Jose, will assist customers in designing the BGA packaging substrate, identifying power and ground requirements, determining I/O assignments for each pin, and conducting the thermal/electrical simulation work for the chips.

Movers and Shakers

Silicon Valley Research Inc. (San Jose, CA) announced that Warren C. Wong has been appointed vice president of sales with responsibility for worldwide sales.

Data I/O Corp. (Redmond, WA) announced the promotion of Domenico Picone to vice president of operations for the Programming Systems Division. In addition, Keith Barnes , president and CEO of Integrated Measurement Systems Inc., was elected to Data I/O's board of directors.

Jon Siann joined Peregrine Semiconductor (San Diego, CA) as director of marketing.

Chris Henry to the position of director of customer marketing.

S-MOS Systems Inc. (San Jose, CA) has appointed Ian Mackintosh to executive director of the company's ASIC business unit.

Money Bits

IKOS Systems Inc. (Cupertino, CA) announced results for the first quarter ended December 28, 1996. Revenue for the quarter increased 53 percent to $14.19 million.

Cirrus Logic Inc. (Fremont, CA) announced revenues for the third quarter of 1997 were $253.3 million, net income was $10.3 million, and per share earnings were $0.16.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Camarillo, CA) reported record revenues and net income for the first quarter of 1997. Revenues were $21.8 million, an increase of 56 percent over the $14.0 million for the first quarter of fiscal 1996 and an increase of 14 percent over the $19.1 million reported for the fourth quarter of 1996.

All industry segments continue to improve, although electronic equipment may be taking a seasonal dip. The last U.S. IC book-to-bill numbers are shown. In the future, the SIA will report sales by region and will no longer submit book-to-bill numbers.

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integrated system design  March 1997