IN THE NEWS Business and technology news from the semiconductor and design tool industries.

In the News

Compaq Computer Corp. (Houston) and Design Acceleration, Inc. (San Jose) have signed a three-year joint development agreement that will enable Compaq to commercialize its internally developed EDA tools through DAI's marketing and sales channels. The agreement was announced at the recent International Verilog Conference and VHDL International Users Forum, held in Santa Clara, Calif.

Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and United Microelectronics Corp. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) have entered into a multiyear joint marketing and technology development agreement that calls for UMC to endorse Virtual Silicon's Diplomat-25 0.25-µm design rules. The two companies will collaborate on developing test chips to derive key reliability data, establish timing correlation, and verify cores.

Meanwhile, Artisan Components, Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) will provide Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (Hsinchu) with 0.25-µm memory generators and standard-cell libraries for incorporation into TSMC's design libraries. TSMC purchased Artisan's Process-Perfect HS300 single- and dual-port memory generators and Process-Perfect standard-cell libraries.

Synopsys , Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) has announced that by the end of 1998 it will offer many of its design tools for Intel-based workstations running under Windows NT. It is collaborating with Digital Equipment Corp. (Maynard, Mass.) in the effort. Additionally, Synopsys will work with Intel to deliver products on Intel's IA-64 microprocessor architecture, beginning with the Merced processor, which is slated to become available in the second half of 1999.

Senté, Inc. (Acton, Mass.) has expanded its power analysis tool suite by offering an option (W5) that will generate a Web-based representation of an IC, designed in either Verilog or VHDL.

Actel Corp. (Sunnyvale) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Space Electronics, Inc. (San Diego) to develop and market a new line of high-reliability, radiation-tolerant FPGAs. The two companies will link Actel's commercial FPGAs with SEI's Rad-Pak package shielding technology, with the first products expected this spring.

The Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits (Northbrook, Ill.) and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (Ann Arbor, Mich.) have developed an Internet-based regulatory compliance and pollution prevention aid for the PCB industry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided funding for IPC and NCMS to create the National Printed Wiring Board Research Center (PWBRC). The center is designed to help PCB facilities achieve compliance with federal environmental regulations, implement innovative pollution prevention strategies that will save them money, assess their environmental performance relative to other facilities, communicate with industry members on environmental issues, and access industry-specific documents.

Meta Systems, S.A. (Saclay, France) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. (San Jose) in the U.S. Federal District Court in San Jose. The lawsuit, which is based on a patent that Meta has the right to enforce, seeks damages for infringement as a result of Quickturn's manufacture and sale of certain emulation equipment. Meta, joined in the lawsuit by Aptix Corp. (San Jose), plans to seek an injunction prohibiting further infringement by Quickturn.

Duet Corp. (San Jose), parent company of Duet Technologies, Inc., has agreed to acquire the business, assets, and employees of Cascade Design Automation Corp ., a subsidiary of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (Tokyo). The companies will merge into a single organization based in San Jose, with Naresh Nigam, current president and CEO of Duet Technologies, as president and CEO. Duet will continue to offer Cascade's complete line of IC physical libraries and compilers, library development tools, and physical design tools and to invest in key technologies. Duet will maintain engineering centers at Cascade's former headquarters in Bellevue, Wash., as well as in San Jose and India.

Aldec, Inc. (Henderson, Nev.) announced that San Jose­based Cypress Semiconductor Corp.'s Warp2 synthesis and fitting product is now a bolt-in option to Aldec's Active-VHDL.

MMC Networks, Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has signed an agreement with Gambit Automated Design, Inc. (San Jose), valued at $1.2 million, whereby MMC will standardize on Gambit's Grandmaster 2.1 for all of its CBA (Cell-Based Array) and standard-cell ICs.

Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, Ore.) will provide the Siemens Semiconductors Group (Munich, Germany) with coverification support for Siemens' 16-bit C166 processor architecture for embedded systems. Mentor Graphics' Codesign Business Unit and Siemens will jointly develop a processor support package for the C166 for Mentor's Seamless Coverification Environment (CVE).

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (San Jose) announced the expansion of its Design Center Network with the acquisition of 120-person Symbionics , a privately held design services company based in Cambridge, U.K.

OrCAD, Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.) has broken ground for its new world headquarters in Tigard, Ore., just outside of downtown Portland. OrCAD will initially occupy 90,000 square feet of the new 120,000-square-foot facility. The building will house corporate, sales, marketing, and service groups, along with approximately half of the company's engineering organization.

American Microsystems, Inc. (Pocatello, Idaho) has doubled its Boston Design Center and hired additional staff. The center, which serves such customers as GE, HP, Northern Telecom, and Xerox, has moved from a 1,700-square-foot facility to a 4,400-square-foot facility in Andover, Mass.

Silicon Valley Research, Inc. (San Jose) has expanded the sales region of Silicon Valley Research K.K., Japan, to include all of Asia. Sales efforts will now be a direct responsibility of the SVR office in Tokyo. Minoru Takagi, SVR's vice president, will now be responsible for coordinating sales throughout Asia.

Movers & Shakers

Aart de Geus , CEO of Synopsys , Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.), has been named chairman of the board. He succeeds chairman Harvey Jones, who will continue to serve on the board as an active outside director. Synopsys 's chief operating officer, Chi-Foon Chan , was elected to the board for the first time.

Avanti Corp. (Fremont, Calif.) has named Henry Verheyen head of the Logical Products Division, which offers formal verification, logic simulation, and front-end design products.

Design Acceleration, Inc. (San Jose) has appointed Peter G. H. Hwang director of marketing, reporting to Stephen R. Pollock, vice president of marketing. Also, Mark Glasser was named director of verification engineering, reporting to Dean Drako, DAI's president and CEO.

Escalade Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has appointed Pete Rodriguez vice president of North American sales, reporting to Jean-Pierre Braun, Escalade's president and CEO. Sean Murphy has joined Escalade as director of product marketing, reporting to Steve Carlson , vice president of marketing. Andy Rappaport , a partner of August Capital and founder of Technology Research Group, is now an adviser to Escalade and its board.

CAE Plus, Inc. (Austin, Texas) has named Tom Dille its vice president of marketing. Dille reports to Prem Jain, CAE Plus's founder and president.

Cygnus Solutions (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has appointed Ronald Workman vice president of marketing. Workman will be responsible for managing all strategic marketing and communications.

Credence Systems Corp. (Fremont) hired Dennis P. Wolf to be senior vice president and chief financial officer. Wolf took over for Jerry Bruce, Credence's controller, who was filling those positions.

Sheila Holland has joined Vautomation, Inc. (Nashua, N.H.) as director of western area sales, reporting to the vice president of sales and marketing, Bill Fletcher. She will manage the office in Los Altos, Calif.

Money Bits

Ansoft Corp. (Pittsburgh) posted revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 1998 of $6.8 million, up 91 percent from the $3.6 million reported in the previous third quarter. Net income was $1.1 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared with $467,000, or $0.06 per diluted share, for the same quarter in the prior fiscal year.

Fabless semiconductor manufacturer Genesis Microchip, Inc. (Toronto) has launched its initial public offering of 2,850,000 shares of common stock at a price of $11.50 (U.S.) per share.

Credence Systems Corp. (Fremont, Calif.) reported net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 1998 of $82.4 million, an increase of 19 percent and 105 percent over the $69.4 million net sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1997 and $40.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 1997.

Data I/O Corp. (Redmond, Wash.) recorded net income from continuing operations of $500,000, or diluted earnings per share of $0.07, for the fourth quarter of 1997, versus net income from continuing operations of $280,000, or $0.04 per share, in the same period of 1996.

Sandcraft, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has completed an equity investment agreement led by U.S. Venture Partners , with participation by Wessels, Arnold & Henderson, LLC. A privately held company, Sandcraft will use the funding for continuing operations and for expanding its customer base. Lucio Lanza, a general partner at USVP, will serve as a director of Sandcraft.

LTX Corp. (Westwood, Mass.) reported sales for its second quarter, ended Jan. 31, of $55.13 million, compared with $46.78 million in the second quarter last year. Net income was $765,000, or $0.02 per share, compared with $381,000, or $0.01 per share, in the second quarter of last year.

Applied Materials, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has completed the repurchase of 5 million shares of its common stock under a systematic share repurchase program authorized by the board of directors on March 14, 1996. The company repurchased 2,688,000 shares during its 1998 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 27, 1997.

Microelectronic Packaging, Inc. (San Diego) reported a net income of $866,000, or $0.08 per share, from continuing operations for the fourth quarter of 1997, compared with a net loss of $2,327,000, or $0.39 per share, for the fourth quarter of 1996. For the third quarter of 1997, the restated net income was $569,000, or $0.05 per share.

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integrated system design  May 1998