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Cadence will also acquire privately held Ambit Design Systems, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) for $260 million in cash. The acquisition has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is subject to regulatory and Ambit shareholder approval. Cadence expects that the majority of the more than 100 Ambit employees, including its R&D team, will join Cadence. Last year Cadence and Ambit signed OEM and joint development agreements that allowed Cadence to sell Ambit's Buildgates synthesizer.

Cadence has also joined the Tap-in program started by Synopsys, Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) to license proprietary formats to improve tool interoperability. Whereas the original program just allowed companies to share the details for Synopsys's .lib and stamp formats, the latest part of the program includes the Synopsys design constraints (sdc), which are used to describe timing, power, area, and operating conditions to Design Compiler. Such format sharing allows tools to share data more easily.

Summit Design, Inc. and OrCAD, Inc. (both in Beaverton, Ore.) have agreed to merge. After the merger, the resulting company will serve the worldwide market for Windows NT and complementary workstation-based EDA software. Under the terms of the merger agreement, each outstanding share of OrCAD common stock will be exchanged for 1.05 shares of Summit Design common stock. Summit will also assume outstanding OrCAD options on the same basis.

Phoenix Technologies will acquire Sand Microelectronics, Inc. (both in San Jose). Under the terms of the agreement, Sand shareholders will receive approximately $20 million in cash and 500,000 restricted shares of Phoenix common stock upon closing. Up to $4 million will be paid over three years based on the company's expanded Virtual Chips/Sand business unit performance.

Sand and the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (Los Gatos, Calif.) have agreed to develop a modeling environment that facilitates the mix and match of cores that use on-chip buses. Sand is undertaking the pro bono project as part of VSIA's Pilot program, which is designed to validate industry specifications proposed by the Alliance before placement in the public domain. From the Virtual Component Interface specifications proposed by VSIA's On-Chip Bus Development Working Group, Sand will develop a standard VCI model that simulates how a core will operate both stand-alone and across a bus. Sand will also provide software to facilitate debugging and compliance verification with the VCI standard. The internal release is expected in December. Once the interface is approved, VSIA will place an example bus-functional model in the public domain to assist designers in implementing components that comply with the standard.

VSIA has also released its on-chip bus specification for the design, integration, and testing of multiple functional blocks on a single piece of silicon. "On-Chip Bus Attributes, Version 1.0" describes the requirements for on-chip bus documentation, physical deliverables, and technical bus attributes. The document is available at VSIA's Web site.

Protel International Pty, Ltd. (Sydney, Australia), a developer of Windows-based electronic design software, will acquire circuit analysis software maker Microcode Engineering, Inc. (Orem, Utah). Microcode's simulation technology will be incorporated into Protel's EDA/Client software environment to extend the abilities of Protel's circuit analysis tools.

The evolution toward a world of more intelligent electronics is the topic of two featured speaker events at the Embedded Systems Conference, which runs Nov. 1-5 at the San Jose Convention Center. Silicon Valley author and television host Robert X. Cringely will deliver the keynote address, entitled "Jimmy Hoffa and Other Embedded Systems," scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 6:00 p.m. He plans to discuss why current market leaders are likely to lose ground, and who the new winners in the information technology industry are likely to be. In his speech "Enabling the Embedded Systems Revolution" scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 6:00 p.m., Wind River Systems' cofounder Jerry Fiddler will discuss the development of the embedded systems revolution and its economic, philosophical, and ethical implications.

Atmel Corp. (San Jose) and Harris Corp. (Melbourne, Fla.) have settled their patent disputes by entering into a cross-license for semiconductor patents. The specific terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.

Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. (San Jose) has filed counterclaims against Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, Ore.) in the U.S. District Court in the District of Delaware. Quickturn alleges that Mentor's Schedule 14D-1 and solicitation of agent designations filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission are false and misleading. In the filings, Mentor allegedly fails to disclose the full impact on Mentor of the adverse rulings in its various patent litigations with Quickturn. Quickturn is seeking injunctive relief to prevent Mentor from the continued execution of its tender offer and to protect itself from Mentor's attempt to acquire the company in a manner that it believes violates the federal securities laws.

Meanwhile, Mentor has been awarded four U.S. patents for components of its Simexpress and Celaro hardware emulators. All of the patents either reduce the setup time prior to actual emulation or speed debugging. The first patent protects the design of custom chips at the core of the emulation products. The second patent handles the emulation of increasingly large and complex designs through an interconnect system, allowing partitioning of designs and the routing of electronic signals. The third and fourth patents offer visibility of design elements during debugging so that design engineers can "zoom in" and see exactly where any problem is at any moment.

The PCI Special Interest Group (PCI SIG) has received the PCI-X specification proposal, initially developed by Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM as an extension to the existing PCI local bus standard to deliver increased bandwidth and performance. It has launched a work group to consider the development of a faster PCI bus and will review the PCI-X proposal as its initial input.

Silicon Integration Initiative, Inc. (Austin, Texas) announced Quickstart, a three-month promotional program to offer special, limited-time pricing for its DCL-OLA compiler. The program is designed to give those library and EDA tool developers who haven't thus far participated in Open Library API development the opportunity to participate in the OLA production launch beginning in the fourth quarter of 1998. The opportunity will serve to promote the compiler among smaller ASIC and EDA vendors, in addition to IP providers. The Quickstart program costs $25,000 for one node-locked license for one year from date of purchase on a supported platform. The program will conclude Dec. 15.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) is conceiving a Java card API for the boundary-scan market, intended for testing, debugging, and reconfiguring PLDs. The new Java API can be deployed by any PLD supplier, as well as manufacturers of automatic test equipment, device programmers, and software developers. Sun hopes to unify the generation and distribution of programs required for configuring, testing, and debugging ISP devices and boundary-scan chips that are compliant with the IEEE 1149.1 standard, offering manufacturers flexibility in a networked environment. While the development of the API is in the formative stages, all potential users and suppliers have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the specifications.

The Mathworks, Inc. (Natick, Mass.) will collaborate with Algorex, Inc. (San Francisco), a provider of wireless communication design tools, to develop new design and simulation tools for developers of wireless communications products. As part of this relationship, Algorex has adopted the Mathworks DSP Workshop design software as the foundation of its custom communications design solutions.

Open Verilog International (Los Gatos, Calif.) has approved the analog and mixed-signal standard for Verilog. Verilog-AMS allows for the description of systems composed of mechanical, electromagnetic, and electrical subsystems, extending the IEEE-1364 Verilog standard for electronic design. The companies that are supporting, plan to support, or are using the Verilog-A or Verilog-AMS standard include Analogy, Apteq, Cadence, Motorola, National Semiconductor, and Transcendent Design Technology. The latest draft of the standard and information about OVI's Verilog-AMS effort is on the organization's Web site.

Mentor Graphics Corp. and Siemens Semiconductors AG (Munich, Germany) have signed a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal for the licensing of Mentor's Virtual Library of soft cores to support Siemens's core-based design methodology and the Semicustom Highway Design Environment. Mentor's Inventra IP Division will also serve as preferred supplier of reusable cores for Siemens.

NEC Corp. (Tokyo) will provide the Microelectronics Group of Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Allentown, Pa.) with embedded DRAM cell designs from its ASIC library, allowing Lucent to offer DRAM as well as SRAM and flash memory within its ASICs. Lucent and NEC will manufacture the ASICs with embedded DRAM using a 0.25-µm modular process technology that optimizes the performance of the logic and memory circuits.

Actel Corp. and Quicklogic Corp. (both in Sunnyvale, Calif.) have agreed to an out-of-court settlement of all pending litigation between the companies. The suits and countersuits, which involved antifuse FPGA integrated circuit device technology, dated back to 1994. The settlement includes cross licenses that protect all existing FPGA products of both companies for the lives of those products, but doesn't include Actel's SRAM FPGA technology.

Seattle Silicon, Inc. (Bellevue, Wash.) and Microchip Technology, Inc. (Chandler, Ariz.) have signed a shared technology licensing agreement to produce system-on-a-chip 8-bit microcontroller ASICs. Seattle Silicon will license Microchip's PIC16C5X 8-bit processor core, which has a 12-bit instruction set architecture, as the standard platform for the continued development of new ASIC designs.

The market for programmable DSP chips will grow 20 percent in 1998 to $3.9 billion, according to a report published by DSP market research firm Forward Concepts (Tempe, Ariz.). The positive growth of DSPs in a chip market that will experience negative overall growth this year principally stems from the healthy market for digital wireless communications, which continues to grow worldwide.

Movers and Shakers

The new chairman of Silicon Access, Inc. (San Jose) is Dado Banatao , a venture partner at the Mayfield Fund and the founder of three Silicon Valley companies: Chips and Technologies, Mostron, and S3. He also serves as chairman of Acclaim Technology, Marvell Semiconductor, New Moon Software, SIRF Technology, and Stream Machines.

Rob Baxter has joined Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Singapore) in the newly created position of senior vice president, business operations. He joins Chartered from Motorola's semiconductor group, where he was vice president and general manager of the Digital Consumer Division, headquartered in Japan. Previously, Baxter had managed Motorola's Consumer and Smartcard Microcontroller Division in the United States.

Phil Bishop, an eight-year veteran of Mentor Graphics Corp., is the new vice president of the Mentor Consulting professional services division. He was formerly director of Mentor Consulting's Knowledge Centers. Before joining Mentor, Bishop held key technical positions in Motorola's Semiconductor group and at Boeing.

Mindy West has joined Quicklogic Corp. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) as director of worldwide business marketing. She has over 12 years of sales and marketing experience in electronics distribution. Her most recent position was with Arrow Electronics as regional marketing manager. Prior to that, she was product manager at Hamilton/Hallmark.

Andy Mindlin is now a member of the board of directors of Asset Intertech, Inc. (Richardson, Texas). Mindlin is a management consultant and president of CDM Management Group. He previously held marketing positions with Proctor & Gamble and Richardson-Vicks.

The Virtual Socket Interface Alliance has elected Howard Sachs as its president for the 1998-1999 term. Vice president of worldwide system LSI technologies at Fujitsu Microelectronics, he has also served as Fujitsu's representative to VSIA's Steering Working Group since its launch in September 1996.

Thomas W. Goodman , technology and market analyst for the microelectronics packaging industry, has joined Flip Chip Technologies, LLC (Phoenix) as the Asia Division's technical marketing manager. Goodman will lead FCT's customer and business development and expansion efforts in Asia and will relocate to Tokyo in 1999. As senior technology analyst for Techsearch International, he has analyzed technologies and emerging markets for microelectronics packaging. Goodman has worked as a research engineer at Sony's Central Research Laboratory in Yokohama, Japan, and as package and assembly development engineer at Motorola in Phoenix.

PDF Solutions, Inc. (San Jose) has appointed four new members to its senior executive team: Andrzej Strojwas , chief technologist; P. K. Mozumder , vice president, performance optimization practice; Paul Marella , vice president, yield modeling and prediction practice; and P. Steven Melman , vice president of finance and administration and CFO. Currently a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Strojwas has held senior technical positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Harris Semiconductor, Hitachi, KLA-Tencor, NEC, Sematech, and Texas Instruments. Mozumder was previously a branch manager at Texas Instruments' Semiconductor and Process Design Center in Dallas; he has worked jointly with organizations such as Sematech and SRC to develop a roadmap for TCAD, process synthesis, control, and diagnosis for the U.S. semiconductor industry. Marella most recently held the positions of director of product planning and director of applications engineering for the Wafer Inspection Group at KLA-Tencor, where he developed product concepts for yield management systems. Melman was previously VP of finance and CFO at Animation Science's Business Resource Group; he has also held senior financial management positions at Apple, Schlumberger, and Stardent Computer.

Money Bits

Raytheon Co. (Lexington, Mass.) declared a regular quarterly dividend on its common stock. The board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share on both Class A and Class B common stock. The dividend is payable on Oct. 30, to stockholders of record on Oct. 2. The dividend rate is unchanged from the previous quarter.

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integrated system design  November 1998