In its latest report, entitled Register Transfer Level Market Trends 2009, Gary Smith EDA said it assesses EVE's market share at 28 percent for 2008.

The market research firm notes that EVE offers "what many consider to be true design team acceleration and emulation boxes." Gary Smith EDA defines the design team acceleration and emulation market, as opposed to the verification team acceleration and emulation market, as hardware-based verification solutions that fit on a designer's desktop and do not impose restrictions on environmental conditions.

In a commentary, Gary Smith, founder and chief analyst of Gary Smith EDA, declared: "In order to do any software verification, designers need an emulation box. EVE has made inroads into a variety of fast-paced markets, including processors, wireless, multi-media, graphics, communications and consumer electronics, where high-execution speed, pricing, capacity, scalability, thorough and fast-design debugging, short-compile times and multi-user capabilities are all important."

In its report, Gary Smith EDA noted that RTL market is facing a tumultuous period and the shift to ESL has been a key driver of a decreasing RTL market.

"Coupled with the fact that there continues to be price pressures on commodity-like tools in RTL, uncertain economic conditions, and turmoil at key vendors, you end up with a sharply declining RTL market in nearly every subapplication in 2008, with this trend continuing over the near term," commented the market intelligence firm.

"However, by 2010 or 2011, the RTL market will be back in full swing, with pent-up user demand driving tool purchases."