Earlier this year, Synopsys sent out two press releases to announce it had acquired ESL design software vendor CoWare Inc. and virtual system prototyping technology provider Vast Systems Technology Corp.

How about Gemini? No clue.

Try this exercise. Go to Gemini's website. You are immediately redirected to Synopsys' website. Once there, type Gemini in the search engine. Still no trace of missing Gemini.

Contacted by EDA DesignLine, Yvette Huygen, director, worldwide PR & Corporate Public Affairs, Synopsys Inc., declared: "We did not do a news release and are not offering details at this time."

Huygen, however, confirmed: "We closed a deal to acquire Gemini in November 2009, with employees joining the Synopsys team."

She also indicated that Synopsys plans "to continue to support the GSim technology."

In 2009, Gemini announced production availability of its analog and mixed signal SPICE simulator, GSim.

Claiming breakthroughs in speed as well as 100-percent SPICE accuracy, Gemini said GSim is the result of a three pronged strategy: improvements to fundamental core SPICE algorithms, multithreading of both the model evaluation and matrix solving components of the simulator, and parallel computation techniques. The result is a simulator that is suited to large designs with high parasitic counts.

Designed to be used and operated just like Spectre, GSim is integrated within standard EDA tool flows such as Cadence's ADE environment, but is sold through a flexible licensing model that allows customers to 'pay for only the performance they require at any given point', the company explained.

"In terms of how Gemini complements our portfolio, Gemini offered an accelerated SPICE technology that will be use to strengthen our HSPICE technology," Huygen specified.

Gemini was founded in 2005 by a team with extensive experience in the EDA industry, notably at Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys, Inc. The core team —consisting of Dr. Baolin Yang and Dr. Xiaodong Zhang— have been involved with the development of several successful SPICE simulators and analog design environments.

Gemini was backed by EDA industry pioneer, co-founder of Cadence, and EDAC Phil Kauffman Award winner James Solomon.