Synopsys Inks Deals with Agere, Sony
By Ed Sperling and Ann Steffora Mutschler -- EDN, April 20, 2006
Agere Systems will standardize on Synopsys’ Galaxy Design and Discovery platforms for its design flows for digital systems on a chip, including advanced 65nm and below processes. The two companies also plan to work together to integrate Agere’s design for manufacturing (DFM) technology, which is being integrated with the Galaxy and Discovery platforms.
The deal is the second significant win this week for Synopsys. Sony also will use some of Synopsys’ DFM technology in the ramp of advanced process nodes for high-performance system large-scale integration. Sony will rely on Synopsys’ alternating aperture phase-shift mask technology to improve yields in the manufacturing of high-performance chips. This technology is meant to allow manufacturability improvements through increased lithography resolution, enhanced yields, decreased leakage current and better chip performance.
The Agere deal is part of a two-pronged strategy for that company. It has placed bets on both Synopsys and its chief EDA rival, Cadence Design Systems, banking on both companies’ technology in different markets. Agere has standardized on Synopsys’ tools for the digital chip market, while it is using Cadence’s Virtuoso platform for custom, analog and mixed-signal designs.
“Over the years, we’ve worked closely with Synopsys to design our complex SoCs for a wide variety of markets,” Hai Wang, Agere’s VP of front end operations, said in a statement. “We chose Synopsys to play a bigger role in our design and verification efforts going forward in light of Synopsys’ outstanding solutions, service and support…Using Synopsys as a design partner will help us consolidate our digital EDA solutions, which in turn will reduce costs and speed time to results.”
Agere declined to comment on why it chose Synopsys for digital platforms and DFM and Cadence for analog and mixed signal.
