标签: synopsys

Despite persistent economic doom and gloom, electronic design automation (EDA) vendors are poised for a strong 2013 as the semiconductor industry prepares to transition to three-dimensional FinFET transistors while continuing to push the envelope with scaling to smaller process geometries, according to Aart de Geus, chairman and CEO of Synopsys Inc. Synopsys—the largest EDA vendor—reported another strong quarter and fiscal year last December—posting sales that exceeded analysts' expectations. The report followed a similar strong performance by Mentor Graphics Corp.—another of EDA's "big three"—last week. "I think EDA in general and Synopsys in particular are very well positioned for 2013," de Geus said in an interview Wednesday following the quarterly report. De Geus believes his company and EDA as a whole are poised to cash in by helping chip makers undertake enormous technical challenges amid fierce competition. Intel Corp. has already put its version of FinFET transistors—which Intel calls tri-gate transistors—into production. TSMC, Samsung, UMC and Globalfoundries all want to put FinFET technology into production in 2014. Foundry customers that want to get in on the ground floor of this technology must act quickly. "The number of technical challenges is substantially higher than in the past," de Geus said. "We do see that customers need a lot of support to build the next generation of chips." That need for support, of course, is music to the years of EDA vendors, who make their living alleviating customers' pain points. EDA—which in recent years has been perhaps unfairly labelled a low-growth industry with limited potential—has genuine opportunity in the years ahead as chip vendors tangle with massive new technical hurdles while fighting each other for every scrap of market share. "The pressure is really high for customers to come up with the next chip sets to win," de Geus said. Synopsys reported sales of $454.2 million for its fiscal fourth quarter, up 2 per cent sequentially and16 per cent year-to-year. The company reported a GAAP net income of $29.1 million, or 19 cents per share, down from a GAAP net income of $75.7 million in the previous quarter and $39.9 million in the year-ago quarter. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding charges, Synopsys reported a net income for the quarter of $72.4 million, or 47 cents per share, down from $82.3 million in the previous quarter and up from $65.3 million in the year ago quarter. For the fiscal year, Synopsys reported sales of $1.756 billion, up 14 per cent from fiscal 2011. The company's GAAP net income for the year was $182.4 million, or $1.21 per share, down 18 per cent from fiscal 2011. Synopsys forecast sales for the fiscal first quarter to be between $468 million and $478 million, with GAAP earnings per share of 30 to 35 cents. For fiscal 2013, Synopsys said it expects sales to increase to between $1.955 billion and $1.975 billion.  

Is Aart de Geus laying the groundwork for his retirement now that he has company at the top of Synopsys' org chart after nearly 20 years alone at the helm? "It's a legitimate question," de Geus acknowledged in an interview following Synopsys' fiscal second quarter report and the bombshell announcement that longtime chief operating officer Chi-Foo Chan was promoted to co-CEO. "But the answer is just the opposite." Instead, de Geus said, the structural change—prompted at least in part by the growth of Synopsys in terms of size, product lines and markets served—was a re-configuration intended to help nurture the next phase of growth for Synopsys, which he said was like "a $1.75 billion start-up." De Geus also insisted that sharing the proverbial corner office with Chan would not be much of a change from the way things have been at Synopsys for years. "It's not a structure that many companies adopt," he said. "For us, it's not a big change because Chi-Foon and I have been working hand and glove for over a decade." The official line at Synopsys is that the promotion was an acknowledgment of Chan's work and leadership after more than 20 years as an executive at the firm, including 13 years as president and chief operating officer. Cynics will see it as de Geus paving the way to ride off into the sunset, or as a signal that Chan got a job offer he wasn't prepared to pass up without a little more juice. Rich Valera, an analyst with Needham and Co., noted that de Geus stressed on a conference call with analysts that he wasn't going anywhere. Valera said he doesn't believe the promotion will change anything at Synopsys in the short- to medium-term—Chan will continue to largely oversee the day-to-day operations as he has done for years, while de Geus will continue to concentrate on strategy. "If you were to look long term, this paves the way for Chi-Foon to be the sole CEO," Valera said, adding that he couldn't speculate on the time frame for such a transition. While not exactly what you would call trendy, more firms have in recent years seen fit to split the CEO role among two people. High-profile examples in the electronics world in recent years have included Motorola Inc., which eventually split into two companies, one for each CEO (one of which is now looking for work), and Research in Motion Inc., which eventually showed both co-CEOs the door and handed the reins to its COO, Thorsten Heins. That the boards of two firms attempting to navigate the undulations of the handset and tablet markets in recent years might believe the more the merrier in the CEO chair is one thing (though some may joke that this explained their sometimes schizophrenic behaviour). But it seems a curious experiment in EDA, a cottage industry in many ways with its three $1 billion+ companies and dozens of smaller ones. It seems even more curious that within EDA, the CEO with the most tenure and success is the one that offered to job share. Valera said having co-CEOs can be an unhealthy situation, especially if it's a case where two people have been simultaneously promoted to the role with the expectation that one will eventually win the sole CEO gig. Clearly, that is not the case here. "I think it's unusual, but I think it will work because it will be largely the status quo," Valera said. It should be noted that German enterprise software vendor SAP AG has had co-CEOs for the past couple of years and that that seems to be working out just fine by all accounts. Even so, the term co-CEO seems like an oxymoron in a business culture where the buck has to stop with someone. What happens when, at a critical juncture for a business, the co-CEOs are at loggerheads over the path forward? "The whole point is to make that happen," de Geus said. "It is very important to seek out contrarian opinions." De Geus said that he has found over and over again that when he and Chan don't see eye-to-eye on an important point, the ensuing discussion—while sometimes intense—is ultimately constructive and for the better of Synopsys. There is no question that those who solicit and entertain opposing opinions are ultimately the wiser for it. And if there is any CEO wise and confident enough to make such a bold and unconventional move for what he believed to be the benefit of his company, it's de Geus. There is also no disputing that Chan has paid his dues. Several have speculated that he would ultimately end up driving the Synopsys bus, but very few could have imagined it would be with de Geus riding shotgun. But Valera sees no issues there. "Chi-Foon has never struck me as a guy with a big ego who will be bristling at the thought of sharing the CEO title with Aart," he said.  

                  集成电路的蓬勃发展有赖于电子自动化设计（EDA）工具。 其中大部分设计使用的是Cadence系列工具，Cadence 是一个大型的EDA 软件，它几乎可以完成电子设计的方方面面，包括ASIC设计、FPGA设计和PCB板设计。与众所周知的EDA 软件Synopsys相比，Cadence的综合工具略为逊色。然而Cadence在仿真、电路图设计、自动布局布线、版图设计及验证等方面却有着绝对的优势。设计者常用的工具，例如仿真工具Verilog-xl,布局布线工具Preview 和SOC Encounter,电路图设计工具Composer,电路模拟工具Analog Artist,版图设计工具Virtuoso Layout Editor,版图验证工具Dracula。这些工具的出现，大大提高了设计的效率。