Cadence Design Systems
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Cadence Design Systems, Inc (Nasdaq: CDNS) is an electronic design automation (EDA) software company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc..
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[edit] History
As of 2004, Cadence is the world's largest supplier of electronic design technologies and engineering services. Cadence products and services are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductor devices, computer systems, networking equipment, telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and other electronics based products. The primary corporate product is software used to design chips and printed circuit boards. With approximately 4,850 employees and 2005 revenues of approximately $1.329 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, and trades on Nasdaq under the symbol CDNS.
Cadence's EDA products span the entire product development process including; system design, simulation, logic synthesis, and layout of integrated circuits. In addition, the company has other related products, including tools for integrated circuit packaging and PCB design. Cadence's product offerings are organized around "platforms" targeted at various types of design tasks which include:
- Virtuoso, a suite of programs for designing full-custom integrated circuits; includes schematic entry, circuit simulation, full custom layout, physical verification and extraction. Used mainly for analog, mixed-signal, RF, and standard-cell designs, but also memory and FPGA designs.
- Encounter, includes floorplanning, synthesis, test, and place and route-tools for creation of digital integrated circuits. Typically a digital design starts from Verilog netlists.
- Incisive, includes tools for simulation and functional verification of Verilog, VHDL, and SystemC netlists. Includes formal verification, formal equivalence checking, hardware acceleration, and emulation.
- Allegro, includes tools for co-design of integrated circuits, packages, and PCBs.
In addition to EDA software, Cadence provides contracted design services for customer who are seeking to augment their existing design capabilities and/or minimize risk.
As of 2005, Cadence's major competitors are Synopsys, Mentor Graphics, and Magma Design Automation.
[edit] Connections Program
Cadence offers other EDA companies the opportunity to interface their tools with Cadence's via the Connections Program.
[edit] Acquisitions and mergers
Cadence has been involved with many mergers and acquisitions. Some of the larger examples of companies merged in or acquired are: Valid Logic Systems, High Level Design (HLD), Cooper and Chyan (CCT), Quickturn, CadMOS, Simplex, Silicon Perspective, Plato, Get2Chip and Verplex Systems. The latest major activity is:
- April 7, 2005: acquired Verisity, Ltd., a provider of verification process automation solutions ($315 mln., all-cash).
- September, 2003: acquired Verplex Systems, a provider of Formal Verification products, Conformal Solutions and Blacktie Property Checker.
[edit] Notable persons
- Joseph Costello, CEO, 1988–1997.
- Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, co-founder.
