When Magma Design Automation rolled out its Blast Create product last week, the message was simple: Here's one tool that does it all. Integrated tool suites that perform many functions are the latest trend in EDA-but that may be a good news/bad news situation for designers.

We've already seen do-it-all tools on the back end, most notably Magma's Blast Fusion and Monterey Design Automation's Dolphin place and route systems. Synopsys has its Galaxy platform; Cadence has SoC Encounter. Call it a platform or a tool, the message is similar: One vendor provides a single, integrated solution, with a unified database and a consistent timing engine.

The most recent do-it-all tool, Blast Create, is aimed at front-end design. It combines silicon virtual prototyping, RTL and physical synthesis, analysis, and test. The message is that synthesis is a utility, not a point tool-a view supported by Dataquest, which sees the standalone synthesis market declining as integrated "IC implementation" solutions take hold.

What's good about integrated solutions is that all the pieces work together. There are no file transfers, no inconsistent timing engines, and, one would hope, few or no iterations. Significant productivity and time savings can result.

The downside is that it's harder to pick the best tools for any given design task. Yes, all vendors have "open" systems-but how easy is it to replace a portion of a "do it all" tool, or to buy three-quarters of a tool if you don't want all the capabilities? If you've spent $225,000/year on Blast Create, for instance, it will be hard to convince management that there's a third-party power or scan tool you need to add.

The era of best-of-breed point tools may be ending. Integration is great-but let's hope it doesn't usher in an era of being locked into single-vendor solutions.

RICHARD GOERING is managing editor of Design Automation for EE Times.

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