In the News

Business and technology news from the semiconductor and design tool industries

Viewlogic Systems, Inc. (Marlboro, Mass.) will acquire Transcendent Design Technology, Inc. (Camarillo, Calif.), a provider of electromechanical design and analysis products and consulting services. The acquisition is subject to the approval of Transcendent shareholders. Automotive, aerospace, and industrial companies use Transcendent's products to design wire harness and cable systems. The companies didn't disclose the financial terms of the agreement. Viewlogic plans to sell integrated solutions immediately, based on the compatibility of Transcendent and Viewlogic products.

* The Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola Corp. (Schaumburg, Ill.) has made an all-cash bid for the outstand-ing common shares of software tools developer Metrowerks (Austin, Texas) at a price of U.S.$6.25 (approximately Cdn.$9.25) per share, or U.S.$95 million (approximately Cdn.$141 million) for the publicly traded Canadian corporation. Founded in 1985, Metrowerks designs, develops, markets, and supports professional software development tools, including Codewarrior. The board of directors of Metrowerks unanimously approved the transaction with Motorola.

* On Semiconductor (Phoenix) is the new name of a former division of Motorola acquired by Texas Pacific Group under terms announced by the parent company on August 5. On Semiconductor has developed focused joint ventures with Leshan (China), focusing on small signal products; Roznov in the Czech Republic, focusing on supplying both raw silicon wafers and analog technologies; and Piestany in Slovakia, focusing on power TMOS and metal gate logic families.

* The Market Statistics Service of the EDA Consortium (San Jose) reported record new license and services revenues for Q1 1999. The EDA industry grew by 18.1 percent overall in the quarter (compared to the same period last year) to reach $878 million. This marks the 17th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth and the third quarter in a row that the EDA industry has posted more than $800 million in new license and service revenues. Last year, the industry reported a total of $3.3 billion in revenue. For the first time, PCB and MCM layout tools outpaced the IC layout category as the fastest-growing EDA tool category. Total revenues for PCB/MCM layout tools posted a 34 percent increase over Q1 1998, to reach $78 million. Reported quarterly revenues showed that the new EDA licenses and Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) products and tools grew by 17.5 percent (over the same period in 1998), to reach $525 million. SIP revenue grew 11 percent to reach $38 million. The greatest year-to-year increases came in the categories of synthesizable macrocells and cores, SIP building blocks, and SIP tools. Consulting services revenue increased by 33 percent to reach $105 million, a new quarterly high.

* The North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a July 1999 book-to-bill ratio of 1.11, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (Mountain View, Calif.). The three-month average of worldwide shipments in July 1999 was $1.3 billion--essentially flat with the June 1999 level, yet 14 percent above the July 1998 shipments level of $1.1 billion. The three-month average of bookings in July 1999 was $1.4 billion, 8 percent below June 1999 yet is 96 percent above the July 1998 level of $718 million. Bookings in July 1999 rose to 86 percent of the previous cycle peak of $1.6 billion reached in November 1997.

* IEEE-USA (Washington) has published the latest version of Salary Benchmarks: A Personal Workbook, a tool for electrotechnologists who are evaluating their market value in today's labor market. Based on data and analysis from the current IEEE-USA Salary Survey, the workbook provides a personal salary estimate that allows engineers to factor in their individual circumstances for a current or prospective job, including 75 variables such as location, experience, industry, education, and other economic and demographic characteristics. The workbook is available for $14.95 to IEEE members and $19.95 to nonmembers by calling (800)-678-IEEE. Ask for Prod-uct no. UH-2982.

* Avanti Corp. (Fremont, Calif.) completed its acquisition of Xynetix Design Systems, Inc. (Rochester, N.Y.). Xynetix becomes Avanti's Systems Division, which develops, markets, and sells software for IC package design. The addition of Xynetix's tools and technology enables Avanti to include the design and modeling of deep-submicron silicon packages as part of the design process.

* Synopsys, Inc. (Mountain View) will provide the front-end EDA tools for the "Special Manpower Development for VLSI Design and Related Software" project, which is led by the Indian Government's Department of Electronics. Under the program, 19 Indian technical universities (including all the Indian Institutes of Technology) will set up a VLSI lab. Synopsys has a research and development center in Bangalore that is involved in software development and professional services.

* Sematech (Austin) has contracted OEA International, Inc. (Santa Clara) to develop design tools for deep-sub-micron designs. The contract will enhance OEA's Chip Parasitic Extraction and Signal Integrity Verification (CPE & SIV) tools to help design VLSIs with geometries down to 130 nanometers. The OEA tools, along with tools from other EDA vendors, will be compatible with the Chip Hierarchical Design System (CHDS technical data) tool standard being promoted by Sematech and its member companies.

* Sibercore Technologies (Kanata, Ontario) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC; Hsinchu, Taiwan) announced a strategic partnership for wafer fabrication. Under the agreement, TSMC will provide foundry services to help manufacture Sibercore's first product, the Sibercam Ultra-2M, and other products in the Sibercam product family.

* United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) relocated its U.S. headquarters to accommodate the company's growth. The company has relocated to a 25,000-foot facility, located at 488 DeGuigne Drive, Sunnyvale, Ca., that will house all of the company's U.S. operations including sales, marketing, and R&D, and over one hundred employees.

* Radisys Corp. (Hillsboro, Ore.) completed its stock-for-stock merger with Texas Micro (Houston, Tex.). Under the terms of the merger, Texas Micro stockholders will receive one Radisys share for every 4.96 Texas Micro shares. As a result of the merger, Radisys's fully diluted shares outstanding will increase to approximately 11.5 million shares. Texas Micro possessed net operating losses that Radisys can use under certain conditions going forward. The company expects these losses to reduce Radisys's overall tax rate to approximately 27-28 percent in Q3 and Q4 of this year, and 30-31 percent in 2000. The Texas Micro business is now the Radisys Communication Platforms Division, based in Houston. John Leonardo, who was chief operating officer of Texas Micro, will become vice president and general manager of the Communication Products Division. Ron Groen, who was vice president of sales and marketing at Texas Micro, will become vice president responsible for all of Radisys's international sales activities; Groen is based in Almere, the Netherlands. Chris Melson, who was vice president of product development at Texas Micro, will become vice president of product development within the Communication Platforms Division. Don Harrison, formerly vice president of technology of Texas Micro, will become a Radisys Fellow.

Movers and Shakers

Zuken-Redac (Santa Clara, Calif.) has named Michael Fitts its solutions business manager. He is responsible for managing the company's advanced packaging technology and CAE (simulation, analysis, and design entry) businesses. Prior to joining Zuken-Redac, he was president and owner of The Solution Fitts, Inc., a consulting firm. Fitts also is a former Zuken-Redac and Veribest VAR, a past president of the Colorado Designer's Council, and a member of Printed Circuit Design magazine's editorial review board and conference advisory board.

* Stargate Solutions, Inc. (San Jose) has hired John Perry as vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. Prior to joining Stargate, Perry served as general manager and vice president of sales for TransEDA, and vice president of sales for Sand Microelectronics. Other technology experience in Perry's 25-year business career includes stints with Cadence Design Systems, Texas Instruments, and NCR Corp.

* Gary Wooley joined Sente's new sales and engineering office in Texas to manage the office as central region sales manager. Bill Jerdee joined Sente this month as an application engineer for the central region. Prior to joining Sente, Wooley and Jerdee worked for Summit Design, Inc., an EDA software supplier based in Beaverton, Ore.

* Chris M . Toffales is now a senior vice president at DRS Technologies, Inc. (Parsippany, N.J.). He has 20 years of defense-related experience in business development, program management, and engineering. Before joining DRS, Toffales was vice president of business development and advanced products at Lockheed Martin Fairchild Systems (Syosset, N.Y.).

* Daniel Artusi is the new vice president and general manager of the Networking and Computing Systems Group (Austin, Tex.) within Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector. He has been with Motorola since 1977, and previously served as general manager of Motorola's Wireless Infrastructure Systems Division based in Phoenix, Ariz.

* Viewlogic Systems, Inc. (Marlboro, Mass.) appointed Jeffrey R. Menkes as vice president of North American sales. For the past three years, he headed the North American Sales organization for the Microtec division at Mentor Graphics.

* Cadmos Design Technology, Inc. (San Jose) promoted Jim McCanny from director of business development to vice president of business development. Mark Goldman is now vice president of sales. With more than 25 years of experience in hardware and software sales, Goldman joins Cadmos from Duet Technologies, where he was senior vice president of worldwide sales. Before joining Cadmos, McCanny was executive vice president of sales and marketing at Ultima Interconnect Technology, Inc.

* Anjaneya Thakar was named vice president of marketing and business development at Cadabra Design Automation, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.). Formerly with Magellan Corp. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Thakar has more than 10 years marketing and business development experience in EDA and embedded processors, as well as six years in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and test.

* Logicvision, Inc. (San Jose) has appointed Rodger Sykes as vice president of marketing and business development. Previously, he was the marketing and business development director in the Windows systems IC business unit for Philips Semiconductor (Mountain View, Calif.).

Money Bits

Protel International Limited (PRI; Sydney) has completed its initial public offering on the Australian stock market. The shares are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) under the symbol PRI. The float prospectus raised gross proceeds of AUD$46.5 million (USD$30.23 million) based on an initial offering price of AUD$2 (USD$1.30) per share. The company will use the capital raised to continue its expansion and acquisition programs. The offering totaled 23.25 million shares, which made up 38 percent of the total shares on issue at the close of the offer.

* Summit Technology, Inc. (Waltham, Mass.) announced the public offering of 3,500,000 shares of its common stock priced at $16 per share. The offering is being managed by Hambrecht & Quist LLC, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray and Dain Rauscher Wessels.

* Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (San Jose) will repurchase up to 1 million shares of the company's common stock, in addition to a $25 million repurchase program announced in April. Under the earlier program, the company repurchased 2.5 million shares of common stock at an average price of $10 per share. The company intends to use the repurchased shares for exercises of employee stock options, purchases under the company's employee stock purchase plan, or for other purposes. Phoenix currently has approximately 24.7 million shares of common stock outstanding.

* The board of directors of Lattice Semiconductor Corp. (Hillsboro, Ore.) has approved a two-for-one split of its common stock in the form of a stock dividend of one share of common stock for each share of the company's outstanding common stock. A cash payment will be made in lieu of issuing any fractional shares. The stock split will increase the number of outstanding shares from approximately 24 million to approximately 48 million.

Corrections

The "Focus Table: Third-party Design Devices" (August, p. 44) omitted information for Integrated Circuit Designs (Ellicott City, Md). The complete entry can be found in the ISD Magazine online version of the August issue at www.isdmag.com.

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