EDN -- 04.25.96 Cooperative EDA agreement eases design

Out in Front: April 25, 1996

Cooperative EDA agreement eases design

Cadence Design Systems and Mentor Graphics, the two largest EDA companies, have signed an agreement giving them reciprocal access to one another's software tools. The deal covers the complete range of products for both companies and provides for access, training, and integration by the companies' development and professional-services organizations.

This accord takes a big step toward acknowledging that standardization of data-format standards is insufficient to guarantee interoperability among different vendors' tools within a common design flow. You design most complex electronic systems using tools from several EDA vendors and use each tool for different tasks in the design flow. The Mentor Graphics/Cadence pact aims at developing more efficient design flows, achieving better tool integration, and increasing the expertise of each company's design consultants on the other's tools and methodology. An initial project the agreement will address is the development of a tightly integrated Verilog-based design flow. The results of this effort could be beneficial to designers of complex, deep-submicron chips.—by Jim Lipman

Cadence Design Systems, San Jose, CA. (408) 943-1234.

Mentor Graphics, Wilsonville, OR. (503) 685-7000.