IN THE NEWS

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

In the News

OrCAD Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.) has acquired the component information system (CIS) technology of Q Point Technology, as well as hiring Q Point's president, Bill Robertson, and its development staff. The new OrCAD employees will continue to operate out of their current office in Los Altos, Calif. The deal was completed on June 10. The cash purchase represents a strategic investment that brings development and control of OrCAD's enterprise product line in-house. The acquisition resulted in a one-time acquired in-process research and development charge of approximately $400,000 in the second quarter of 1997, and approximately $300,000 of the purchase price is expected to be amortized over the next five years. OrCAD expects the acquisition to have a favorable impact on profit margins.

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. Ltd. (Ichon-si, Kyongki-do, South Korea) has licensed the RISC microprocessor technology of Advanced RISC Machines (Cambridge, U.K.). The partnership will enable Hyundai to extend its development of nonmemory and merged memory-logic products by building on ARM's RISC technology. The industry's fourth-largest provider of DRAMs, it plans to invest several billion dollars in the nonmemory business over the next few years. ARM has been working closely with U.S.-based Symbios Logic, a Hyundai subsidiary, for the past year. The new partnership will extend the existing relationship, enabling ARM to work directly with the parent company. Under the terms of the agreement, Hyundai has licensed the ARM7TDMI Thumb processor. Its first ARM-based products will target CDMA PCS applications.

Atmel Corp. (San Jose) is suing Silicon Storage Technology Inc. (SST; Sunnyvale, Calif.) for infringing five patents that Atmel owns. Atmel requested that the U.S. District Court grant motions for summary judgment on two of its patents (commonly referred to as the '903 and '811 patents). On June 25, Judge Samuel Conti issued an opinion in which he found that, as a matter of law, SST infringed four of the six contested claim elements in the '811 patent and one of the two contested claim elements in the '903 patent. The ruling means that Atmel won't have to present evidence on those five elements at the trial in this case in November. At Atmel's request, the International Trade Commission also has started an investigation of whether Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., Winbond Electronics Corp., and Macronix Inc. are engaged in unfair competition by importing into the United States products that infringe Atmel patents. SST has intervened in that action because Sanyo and Winbond are foundries for SST products. On June 12 the administrative law judge denied SST's motion for summary determination that, as a matter of law, it did not infringe the '903 patent.

A consortium of programmable logic device manufacturers, programming equipment makers, and test equipment manufacturers unveiled a new programming language called Jam that is compatible with all current PLDs that offer in-system programming (ISP). They also proposed that Jam be adopted as an industry standard by the Joint Electronic Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC). Although created by engineers at Altera Corp. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Jam will be freely licensed to all interested parties. It will be submitted to JEDEC's JC42.1 subcommittee and considered at the next JEDEC meeting, currently scheduled for Sept. 8. A vendor- and platform-independent interpreted language optimized for programming devices using the standard IEEE 1149.1 TAP controller, commonly known as JTAG, Jam allows the specification of both the programming data and the programming algorithm in a single file. Once created, a Jam file contains all the information required to program a specific design into a targeted device.

Silicon Valley Research Inc. (San Jose) has stopped selling and supporting the IC Design Verification (Clover) product line that it had licensed from Lucent Technologies Inc. (Murray Hill, N.J.). SVR licensed the Clover line from Lucent in June 1996 and has had limited success despite actively marketing it with a dedicated support team. The company stated that some 10 percent of its work force would be released and that it would take a charge of approximately $2 million for costs associated with these actions.

PRI Automation Inc. has leased two additional buildings in Billerica, Mass., the location of its corporate headquarters, which it plans to use for additional manufacturing space and a demonstration and testing facility for 300-mm wafer-handling solutions. The two buildings total more than 37,000 square feet, increasing PRI's current space by approximately 20 percent. Construction on the demonstration and test facility is under way, with completion expected in September.

Movers and Shakers

Design Acceleration Inc. (San Jose) has expanded the management team that plans for the company's future growth. Dean Drako, a founder of DAI and the company's vice president, was named president and CEO. Charles Miller , an EDA industry veteran with over 25 years of management experience, has joined the company as vice president of sales, reporting to Drako. Stephen R. Pollock , who has been with the company since April 1994, was promoted to vice president of marketing, reporting to Drako. Richard Edelman , previously an engineering manager, has been promoted to director of engineering. Both Edelman and Mark Brown , who manages the Rochester, Minn., development group, also will report to Drako. In a related move, Robert M. Gardner will be leaving the company to pursue other business opportunities. Gardner was brought in 21 months ago as president and CEO to build up the corporate infrastructure, build financial strength, and assist Drako with moving into the president and CEO position.

Victor Berman , an experienced executive from within the EDA industry noted for his work in driving industry design standards, has been named vice president of strategic marketing at Denali Software Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.). He will be based in North Andover, Mass. Berman, who has close to 20 years of engineering management and marketing experience, reports to Sanjay Srivastava , president and founder of Denali.

Money Bits

Technology Modeling Associates Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) announced operating results for the second quarter, ended June 30. Total revenues were $5.3 million, an increase of 24 percent over the same period of 1996, with the largest sales increases being recorded in Japan and Taiwan. Income from operations was $506,000, up 40 percent from a year earlier. Net income for the quarter jumped 222 percent, to $560,000, or $0.07 per share, over that of the corresponding period in 1996. For the six months ended June 30, revenues rose 29 percent to $10.3 million. Income from operations increased 50.3 percent to $923,000 in 1997. Net income for the half jumped 264 percent, to $1.1 million, or $0.13 per share, compared with the corresponding period of 1996.

Ikos Systems Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.) announced results for the third fiscal quarter, which ended June 28. Revenues for the quarter increased 22 percent to $14.43 million, compared with the third quarter of 1996. Before special charges of approximately $7 million associated with the purchase of Zycad's Lightspeed technology and the related customer transition costs, net income for the period rose 25 percent to $2.03 million, or $0.23 per share, versus net income, prior to the charge of $9.6 million associated with the acquisition of Virtual Machine Works, on a fully taxed basis for the same period in 1996. After the special charges, the net loss for the quarter was $2.34 million, or $0.28 per share. *

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integrated system design  September 1997