One EDA/T&M couple is "in a relationship", while another is getting married.

Synopsys and Munich-based test and measurement instrument supplier Rohde & Schwarz have announced that they are collaborating on solutions for the design and verification of LTE and LTE-Advanced chipsets to be used in mobile handsets and wireless basestations.

Synopsys will be providing a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standard-compliant LTE library for the System Studio and SPW algorithm design products, which comes from the company’s acquisition of CoWare last year. CoWare previously demonstrated their virtual platforms and LTE model librariesat the 2009 DAC (Design Automation Conference), along with partners ARM, ST-Ericsson and Motorola.  The library includes models for LTE transmitters and the uplink and downlink PHY (physical layer) channel, along with functional models of ideal receivers that you can use as references during development. Markus Willems, Senior Product Marketing Manager for System-Level Solutions at Synopsys, says that the LTE models represent a conversion of 300 pages of 3GPP paper specifications into ready-to-run simulations. The library includes support for both flavors of LTE - LTE-FDD (frequency division duplex) and TD-LTE (time division duplex), and simulations can be integrated with existing C/C++ and MATLAB code.

As part of the collaboration, Synopsys will verify their LTE (and future LTE-Advanced) libraries against Rohde & Schwarz’s test and measurement solutions, so that algorithm designers can get a head start on the tests that must be passed in order to achieve standards compliance. Rohde & Schwarz is developing the capability for users of their signal generators to derive configuration parameters directly from the Synopsys simulation setup. The companies point out that typical configurations consist of more than 100 parameters, so the interface of simulation and test can provide you with a significant reduction in the time it takes to achieve a correct setup, and reduce the risk of configuration inconsistencies.

You can use Rohde & Schwarz signal generators to generate the physical channels and signals for all LTE bandwidths up to 20 MHz, with support for QPSK (quadrature phase-shift keying), 16QAM, and 64QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation).  Simon Ache, Product Manager for Signal Generators and Power Meters, says that Rohde & Schwarz has integrated a 3GPP compliant downlink and uplink coding chain in their signal generators, with support for all downlink MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) modes, and 2×2 MIMO signal generation in a one-box setup.

Synopsys is planning for availability of the LTE library, including an initial version for LTE-Advanced, in June with their 2011.06 release. The library will be available at no additional cost to all Synopsys SPW and System Studio LTE library customers with current maintenance contracts. Rohde & Schwarz will also provide the automatic configuration capability for R&S®SMU200A, R&S®SMBV100A, and WinIQSim2 signal generators to select customers who possess a valid LTE/LTE-Advanced license in June 2011, and the company is planning to have general availability in October 2011.

National Instruments to Acquire AWR

On the same day that Synopsys and  Rohde & Schwarz announced their collaboration, news has come out that National Instruments is acquiring AWR - a provider of EDA tools for RF and microwave design: Microwave Office and Visual System Simulator. NI sees the acquisition strengthening their LabVIEW product, and enhancing the NI RF testing hardware platform.  The purchase price for AWR, which was founded in 1998, is put at  $58 million including $7 million in cash on the AWR balance sheet. The merger agreement contains a three-year earn-out provision to keep AWR management on board.