The most important EDA story of 2002, in my view, was consolidation. Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems and Mentor Graphics each acquired significant EDA companies and increased their combined market shares-a move that carries good news and bad news for customers.

The biggest acquisition of the year, and in all of EDA history, was Synopsys' purchase of Avanti, completed in June. It gave Synopsys a huge product portfolio in the IC physical-design space. Synopsys also acquired InSilicon, an intellectual-property provider, and Co-Design Automation, originator of the Superlog language.

Soon after acquiring Silicon Perspective Corp. at the end of 2001, Cadence this year purchased Simplex Solutions and routing specialist Plato. Cadence also bought IBM's test tools. Mentor Graphics, meanwhile, purchased Innoveda and Ikos in 2002.

The year also saw some "asset sales" of companies that couldn't raise enough cash to continue on their own. Synplicity, for example, bought the assets of debugging startup Bridges2Silicon and Cadence bought the assets of analog-tool provider Antrim.

Expect to see more such purchases in 2003, given that venture capitalists and angel investors persist in launching far more EDA startups-particularly in the overcrowded verification arena-than they can possibly sustain.

All this consolidation has some positive effects for users. Most notably, it creates stability, allowing good technology from possibly endangered companies to stay in the marketplace. That's why there was widespread relief among Avanti users when the pending sale was announced in late 2001. Consolidation also simplifies an overcrowded playing field.

So what's the downside? Inevitably, some EDA products that people use and want will disappear. Key engineering people often don't join the acquiring company, leading to gaps in R&D and support. Choices of tools and vendors will be restricted. EDA vendors will divert resources to integrate disparate tools and clashing corporate cultures.

The challenge for Synopsys and Cadence is to put together complete, integrated RTL-to-GDSII chip design solutions based on a single database, yet open enough so users can add in-house tools or third-party offerings. Both companies must move in that direction because Magma Design Automation and Monterey Design Systems are already offering integrated tool suites.

I suspect the big story of 2003 will be the deployment of complete IC design suites, and the battle over market share those design suites will create.

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