Synopsys buys virtual system prototyping provider

SAN FRANCISCO—EDA and IP vendor Synopsys Inc. said Tuesday (Feb. 2) it acquired virtual system prototyping technology provider Vast Systems Technology Corp. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Synopsys (Mountain View, Calif.) said it acquired Vast in order to extend its virtual prototyping solutions into the automotive and consumer application space. The acquisition adds to Synopsys virtual prototyping portfolio process sub-system models that allow developers to accelerate the virtualization of electronic systems and to start software development nine to 12 months prior to the availability of silicon, according to the company.

Synopsys said the deal closed Monday. The company said it does not expect the transaction to have a material impact on 2010 revenue or earnings per share.

Vast's executive managment team, including president and CEO Alain Labat, will not be joining Synopsys as part of the acquisition, according to a Synopsys spokesperson.

Vast (Sunnyvale, Calif.) maintains partnerships to deliver system and processor models to several electronics suppliers and OEMs, including NEC, Renesas, Delphi and Infineon. In 2008, IBM Japan announced it would be jointly promoting Vast's electronics device virtualization for its major manufacturing customers in automotive and digital consumer electronics industries. Vast later announced similar deals with other firms, including Freescale Semiconductor.

Early last year NEC Electronics Corp.'s U.S. subsidiary agreed to distribute Vast virtualization technology with automotive microcontrollers. Vast executives likened that deal to the relationship between Microsoft and IBM at the beginning of the PC boom.