FREMONT, Calif. — The open-source Linux operating system has moved closer to the EDA mainstream with the availability of Polaris, a Verilog simulator from Avant! Corp., on that platform. Polaris accompanies other Verilog products that have recently become available under Linux.

Chi-Ping Hsu, CEO staff of products at Avant!, noted that some high-end customers want to implement "server farms" for faster simulation, and feel that Linux will open the door to low-cost hardware.

Polaris supports Red Hat Linux version 5.1. Starting at $15,000, pricing is the same as for other platforms. Polaris offers a choice of interpreted, compiled and cycle-based simulation algorithms.