Synopsys buys Synfora

In addition to acquisitions of Virage and CoWare, Vast, Synopsys acquired Synfora.

Synopsys buys Synfora assets

http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=MW2MPMACXFGELQE1GHPCKHWATMY32JVN?articleID=225600319 Dylan McGrath EE Times (06/10/2010 5:56 PM EDT) SAN FRANCISCO—In its second major acquisition announcement of the day, EDA and IP vendor Synopsys Inc. said Thursday (June 10) it has acquired technology, engineering resources and other assets of high-level synthesis EDA vendor Synfora Inc. The financial terms of the deal, which closed Thursday, were not disclosed. Earlier Thursday, Synopsys (Mountain View, Calif.) said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire IP provider Virage Logic Inc. for $315 million in cash. Synfora (Mountain View) provides C/C++ high-level synthesis tools used to design complex systems-on-chips (SoCs) and FPGAs. Synopsys said the deal would strengthen its position in system-level design and verification and enhance the company's FPGA-based prototyping solutions. "This acquisition adds proven C/C++ high-level synthesis technology to our system-level solutions portfolio and broadens Synopsys' comprehensive solutions for block creation and optimization," said Joachim Kunkel, senior vice president and general manager of the Solutions Group at Synopsys, in a statement. Synopsys did not breakdown the specifics of the acquisition or say how many Synfora employees would join the company as a result of the deal. A spokesperson for Synopsys emphasized that the deal involves Synfora's high-level synthesis tool as well as other select assets, including a "really strong" engineering team. Brett Cline, vice president of marketing and sales at Forte Design Systems, one of the market leaders in high-level synthesis, said Synfora has not been competitive with the rest of the high-level synthesis market for some time due to its ANSI-C based technology, which he said has some fundamental limitations and is primarily focused on prototyping as opposed to real hardware design. Ultimately this resulted in an asset sale, Cline said. "The market for high-level synthesis is in SystemC and has been for a number of years," Cline said. "If Synopsys does intend to go after ASIC and SoC designs we welcome the opportunity to compete."