Two press releases came out today and they were both from major EDA companies that are now starting to position themselves without using the EDA acronym. Perhaps this is a new but subtle trend to remove the old-fashioned EDA label in favor of something different, new or an expanding scope.
Here is the opening line for Synopsys:
Synopsys, Inc. , a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, today announced that San Francisco State University is the latest university to receive the Charles Babbage Grant from Synopsys.
Further down in the press release we have the familiar EDA acronym being used in the company summary paragraph to preserve orthodoxy:
Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS News) is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing.
And the second press release from Magma opens without EDA as:
Magma Design Automation Inc. , a provider of chip design software, today announced Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Madhavan and Chief Financial Officer Peter S. Teshima will speak Nov. 8, 2010 at the TechAmerica AeA Classic Financial Conference, to be held in San Diego.
Like Synopsys, we still see Magma using the familiar EDA acronym in their corporate summary:
Magma’s electronic design automation (EDA) software provides the “Fastest Path to Silicon”(TM) and enables the world’s top chip companies to create high-performance integrated circuits (ICs) for cellular telephones, electronic games, WiFi, MP3 players, digital video, networking and other electronic applications.
This got me to start thinking about the other EDA companies so I checked out the latest Mentor Graphics press release from November 1 and found NO use of EDA at all:
Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products, consulting services and award-winning support for the world’s most successful electronics and semiconductor companies.
Of course Cadence has embraced the EDA acronym with a twist by adding the 360 phrase to become EDA360 their newest initiative:
This approach represents a stark turn from the discrete and compartmentalized ways semiconductor and systems companies have traditionally achieved Silicon Realization, the term that refers to all the steps required for bringing a design to silicon and a key component of the EDA360initiative.
Finally I visited the web site of Apache Design Automation to look for the phrase EDA in their press releases but found NO such uses.
Apache Design Solutions, the technology leader in power integrity and noise closure for chip-package-systems (CPS) convergence, today announced that Exar Corporation (Nasdaq: EXAR) has chosen Apache’s PowerArtist, RedHawk, and Totem platforms for comprehensive power, noise and reliability solution from RTL to sign-off, including analog and mixed-signal designs.
Going one step further, when you use the Search feature of the Apache web site and look for EDA, this is the result:
Long live EDA, no matter what marketing name we choose to call it.
Reminds me of an IPO back in the dot-com bubble, I think it was Synplicity, and they essentially described themselves as a networking company.
“contributing to the Internet’s infrastructure” or the like.
EDA as the Rodney Dangerfield of tech?
John,
Yes, and Synplicity received a great payday on that IPO and then a second payday when purchased by Synopsys.
Daisy, Mentor and Valid created EDA in the early 1980’s and now Mentor is a “world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions”.
At Viewlogic we had a marketing class where they taught us, “people use tools to solve their own problems, we are not offering solutions.”