Synopsys has agreed to acquire Magma Design Automation, the California-based chip design software firm.
The acquisition reflects a change in scale for developers of design tools for next generation chips at the 20nm process node and beyond. There is a demand for more design capabilities than ever before.
"The dramatic rise in complexity of today's semiconductor designs for all process nodes requires an equally dramatic increase in designer productivity," said Aart de Geus, chairman and CEO at Synopsys.
Customers are either dealing with the very complex physics of 20nm design or they are squeezing the last bit of performance and cost from designs at mature, high-value nodes," said de Geus.
An example of Magma's capability in advanced process technologies was seen last month when it announced that eSilicon has used its software tools to tape out a three-way microprocessor cluster based on MIPS’ leading-edge MIPS32 1074Kf Coherent Processing System (CPS).
The design services firm used Magma’s Talus IC implementation platform and the Talus-Flow-Manager-Based Reference Flow for Globalfoundries’ 28nm-SLP process technology.
According to Magma, the implementation flow provides “advanced crosstalk avoidance and correction technology, accelerating design cycles”.
A feature of the reference flow for Globalfoundries' 28nm SLP process is that it allows chip developers to import an existing design, then analyse and evaluate its performance in the 28nm-SLP process.
The cash deal is valued at approximately $507m net of cash and debt acquired.
The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction.
http://www.synopsys.com