- What People Are Saying
Semiconductor Vendors and Customers
Agere Systems
“At Agere Systems, we rely on industry-proven EDA solutions when developing our complex systems-on-chip and ASICs for first-pass success,” said Jon Fields, vice president of design platforms at Agere Systems. “We welcome the introduction
of Synopsys’ design platform and the opening of the Milkyway database through its Milkyway Access Program. This will allow us to further enhance our proven world class design flow for our customers by giving us access to a broader set of tools on a common design platform.”
Agilent Technologies
“As a leader in the development of networking, computing, and imaging ASICs, Agilent understands the advantages that an open database and high-quality tools provide,” said James Stewart, Agilent Technologies ASIC Product Division General Manager. “Synopsys’ Milkyway database and design tools are well-suited for next generation, leading edge nanometer design flow.”
ARM
“As the industry’s leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions, ARM®: technology is at the heart of a wide range of digital products. Our Partners choose ARM technology to get to market quickly with differentiated products,” said Simon Segars, executive vice president of Engineering at ARM. “By opening Milkyway, Synopsys enables us to support the silicon design implementation tool choices of our Partners and simplify integration into our reference methodology or their chosen flow. Bringing together Synopsys’ industry-leading design implementation tools and the industry-proven Milkyway design database into the Synopsys design platform will be important for the industry. It will enable our Partners to accelerate their design process, focus more on getting their products to market and less on tool and IP integration issues.”
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing
"As a proponent of openness and interoperability, Chartered remains committed to promoting open standards that benefit our industry and our customers by improving overall time to market, and we applaud Synopsys' announcement," said Bruno Guilmart, senior vice president of WW Sales and Marketing, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing. "We believe this is a positive step that will help the EDA industry narrow the gap between device technology and design methodologies. In our test chip development, Milkyway is a key enabler to our adopted Synopsys SinglePass solution. The global database allows effective data sharing and analysis among the different functions of our physical design flow.
IBM Microelectronics
“A key focus of IBM Microelectronics foundry services is to make IBM's most advanced technologies available to designers worldwide,” said Michael Concannon, vice president, foundry services at IBM Microelectronics Division. “Complete design methodologies, design platforms and interoperability are critical to the success of large SoC designs, especially in a customer-owned-tooling environment. Synopsys’ decision to enhance their design platform by opening Milkyway to the industry provides a flexibility in design tools that will allow designers to take full advantage of IBM’s broad IP library and leading-edge semiconductor process and manufacturing capabilities.”
LSI Logic Corporation
"As a leading designer and manufacturer of communications, consumer and storage semiconductors, LSI Logic has been using Synopsys' implementation tools and has been an early user of Milkyway's C-APIs to integrate our internal tools with great success," said Sudhakar Sabada, vice president of Design Technology at LSI Logic Corporation. "We welcome Synopsys' move to open its Milkyway design database, as it will be good for the industry and LSI Logic. We look forward to being able to better integrate other EDA vendor commercial tools into our LSI Logic Flexstream(r) Design System."
Mitsubishi
“We welcome this move by Synopsys because it will help us smooth our design Flow,” said Teruaki Harada, project manager, electronic design automation application project group, System LSI Division at Mitsubishi Electronic Corporation. “Every interoperability barrier that falls is another boost to our productivity. Access to the Milkyway design database and Synopsys’ design implementation platform will let us integrate in-house and third-party tools much more efficiently.”
SiS
“A leading core logic and graphics supplier like SiS needs the best tools and flows to design its deep submicron system on chips and systems,” said Wei-Shin Wang, the Design Technology Development Director at SiS. “Synopsys’ design implementation platform, with its open Milkyway database, will give us the integrated and open technology that we need to continue to design our cutting-edge products.”
STMicroelectronics
“As a worldwide independent semiconductor vendor, we rely heavily on a wide range of EDA technologies and platforms, for the design of our dedicated systems-on-a-chip, and we have always strived for higher standardization and better interoperability across the EDA industry,” said Philippe Magarshack, group vice president for Design Automation, Central Research and Development at STMicroelectronics. “Synopsys’ IC implementation tools and Milkyway are productionproven, and we are relying on them for many designs in our 130- and 90-nanometer technology platforms. The ability to access Milkyway through an open API will allow our other key EDA suppliers to plug their tools into our Synopsys’ Milkyway-based design flow. This announcement represents a significant step towards a standard interface to the design data-base, which should lead, we believe, to better interoperability across the whole EDA industry.”
Tensilica
“Tensilica’s automatic processor generation is now common across a broad spectrum of consumer and communications SoCs and in a wide range of EDA environments,” said Chris Rowen, president and chief executive officer at Tensilica. “The availability of the Synopsys’ design platform Milkyway APIs, assures that our demanding customers will have access to Synopsys’ best-in-class implementation tools and can integrate other EDA tools as needed.”
TSMC
“We welcome Synopsys’ move to open the Milkyway design database to the EDA community,” said Genda Hu, vice president of Corporate Marketing at TSMC. “The Synopsys Milkyway design database has been a part of the backbone of the TSMC Reference Flow for years, and our customers have successfully taped-out many designs based on Synopsys tools. By opening Milkway, Synopsys smartly provides multiple paths for implementing innovative system-on-chip designs.”
Electronic Design Automation and Partners
Agilent Automated Test Group
“Agilent’s commitment to excellence in system-on-chip test with our single-scalable platform and per pin architecture is well aligned with EDA-generated design data,” said Tom Newsom, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Automated Test Group. “Opening access to the Synopsys Milkyway design database enables closer linkages between design and test environments, resulting in shorter time-to-market and lower cost-of-test.”
Analog Design Automation
"Analog Design Automation is pleased to lend our extensive expertise in analog and mixed-signal design automation tools to support the opening of Synopsys' proven Milkyway database," said Matthew Raggett, President and chief executive officer of Analog Design Automation. "By providing tighter tool integration with our Genius product suite of high-capacity optimization products, our joint customers will see the benefits of saving valuable designer time and improving circuit performance and robustness."
Artisan Components
“Artisan Components is the premier provider of physical intellectual property (IP) libraries to many of the world’s leading semiconductor foundries, integrated device manufacturers, and IC design teams,” said Jim Hogan, senior vice president
of business development at Artisan Components, Inc. “Customers moving to 90 nanometer and below will require open design platforms to solve their advanced IC design challenges. Synopsys’ open Galaxy Design Platform brings together
Synopsys’ industry-proven tools and Milkyway database with Artisan’s silicon-proven libraries to address these design challenges. Our ongoing work with Synopsys to address deep submicron design issues in an integrated design flow will result in a complete set of Synopsys tool views and models for our libraries in support of over 1000 Artisan customers. We congratulate Synopsys on its initiative to open Milkyway to the industry. This is a major step forward in industry wide EDA tool interoperability to ensure successful delivery of our customers’ designs to market.”
Apache Design Solutions
“With the opening of the Milkyway database, Synopsys is taking a very important step in helping designers with their interoperability problems,” said Andrew Yang, chief executive officer at Apache Design Solutions. “Giving designers the ability to use the tools and databases of their choice is important, and direct access to Milkyway will help Apache improve design efficiency for our mutual customers using the Synopsys platform.”
Applied Wave Research (AWR)
“AWR can envision tremendous gains by combining our RF/analog circuit design platform with Synopsys’ leading simulation, extraction and chip assembly tools,” said James Spoto, president and chief executive officer of Applied Wave Research. “Opening the Milkyway database is the key enabler that will provide customers seamless solutions made up of a variety of best-in-class EDA tools.”
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing
"As a proponent of openness and interoperability, Chartered remains committed to promoting open standards that benefit our industry and our customers by improving overall time to market, and we applaud Synopsys' announcement," said Bruno Guilmart, Sr. VP WW Sales and Marketing, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing. "We believe this is a positive step that will help the EDA industry narrow the gap between device technology and design methodologies. In our test chip development, Milkyway is a key enabler to our adopted Synopsys SinglePass solution. The global database allows effective data sharing and analysis among the different functions of our physical design flow.
Circuit Semantics
“Circuit Semantics, Inc. welcomes and endorses any move towards interoperability,” said Jose A. Torres, vice president of marketing at Circuit Semantics. “By opening Milkyway, Synopsys is eliminating interoperability barriers and enabling smoother design flows.”
Denali Software
“We always welcome interoperability initiatives because it enables the industry to focus on delivering high-quality products, independent of the end design environment,” said Sanjay Srivastava, president and chief executive officer of Denali Software. “We’ve been very successful in enabling our Databahn memory controller IP in a wide variety of customer design environments. By opening up the Milkyway database, Synopsys is helping the EDA community at large and its customers by enabling a smoother design flow with the tools and IP of their choice.”
InTime Software
“As a startup, we need to spend our resources wisely,” said Paul Lippe, president and chief executive officer of InTime Software. “That means concentrating on developing our technology, not integrating it into a host of design flows. Synopsys has removed one more interoperability obstacle, and we’re excited about the opportunity to access the large installed customer base utilizing the production-proven Milkyway database.”
Library Technologies
“Library Technology Inc. (LTI) always welcomes and actively participates in any move toward interoperability,” said Dr. Mehmet Cirrit, president and chief executive officer at LTI. “By opening the proven Milkyway database, Synopsys is eliminating more interoperability wall and enabling smoother design flows for our mutual customers.”
Logic Vision
“By opening Milkyway, Synopsys is proving that it is serious about tool interoperability,” said Mukesh Mowji, vice president of Sales and Marketing at LogicVision. “This initiative can enable us to more easily integrate our product into design flows, while creating a more efficient work environment for our customers.”
Monterey Systems
“By allowing access to the Milkyway database, Synopsys is taking a significant step towards enabling improved interoperability,” said Dave Reed, vice president of marketing at Monterey. “This move will make it easier for us to support our mutual customers with a tighter level of integration into the Synopsys Galaxy Design Platform.”
Sequence Design
“We have all heard the message from our customers that interoperability is a priority,” Dr. Susheel Chandra, senior vice president of R&D and Product Marketing at Sequence Design. “Therefore it is essential that best-of-class tools for solving mission-critical problems of power, signal integrity, and timing closure can now be plugged into Milkyway to solve tough nanometer design challenges. A successful implementation of this program will help get the focus back on designing with the best available tools, instead of spending valuable time on tool integration.”
Silicon Canvas
“Our customers are developing cutting-edge analog, mixed-signal and SoC systems,” said Dr. Hau-Yung Chen, president at Silicon Canvas. “They simply don't have time to integrate tools into their custom flows. By opening the Milkyway database, Synopsys is removing a significant interoperability barrier. We can now integrate our Laker products with Astro and Hercules and help our mutual customers reduce time to market pressures.”
Silicon Metrics
“Silicon Metrics has collaborated extensively with Synopsys to advance the library modeling standards to drive consistent timing and signal integrity closure for 130nm design flows,” said Vess Johnson, president and chief executive officer of
Silicon Metrics. “As we move toward 90nm design, the Milkyway API enables even tighter integration of our SiliconSmart characterization technology with the Synopsys Galaxy Design Platform. This interoperability benefits our mutual customers who can customize their integrated flow to address unique IC design challenges.” Silicon Metrics is the leading supplier of timing, power, and signal integrity solutions in the growing characterization market.
STARC
“As an industrial consortium responsible for promoting standardized process technologies, we applaud this move by Synopsys to make it easier for other EDA vendors to integrate with Milkyway,” said Noriaki Nakayama, senior manager
of IP Reuse Group of the Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center (STARC). “Interoperability efforts such as these will help provide enhanced design flows for nanometer designs.”
Synchronicity
“The Synopsys Milkyway database is a leading foundation for modern IC designs and in use at many of our current customers,” said Patrick Romich, chief executive officer of Synchronicity Software, Inc. “By offering access to this data base through a production-proven C-API, Synopsys enables Synchronicity with the capabilities to provide our world-class design
management system to leading-edge designers at 135 nm, 90 nm and below.”
Teradyne
"Advancing process technologies coupled with the broad use of DFT are driving the need for tighter links and data accessibility between design and manufacturing test," said Mark Kohalmy, Teradyne DFT group manager. "The Synopsys Milkyway approach facilitates this integration and complements Teradyne's initiatives to streamline failure diagnosis, where linking tester results with design tools like TetraMAX is key to identifying defects causing yield loss."
Tera Systems
“With IC design getting more complex and time-to-market windows shrinking, our customers need every advantage to shorten design cycles,” said Alain Labat, president and chief executive officer of Tera Systems, Inc. “By opening up its Milkyway database,
Synopsys is helping engineers save valuable time that would otherwise be spent integrating tools into their environments.”
Teseda Corporation
“Teseda Corporation’s DFT-focused test systems rely on a tight connection to the design phase of chip production,” said Steve Morris, president and chief executive officer of Teseda Corporation. “The Synopsys Milkway database will allow us to present test data in the context of the design so that engineers get the most meaningful depiction of test results.”
Virage Logic
"Virage Logic, a leader in best-in-class semiconductor IP platforms, commends Synopsys' Galaxy Design Platform offering. With the introduction of more complex next generation processes such as 90 nm and below, customers need integrated solutions and we're pleased to partner with Synopsys in this effort," said Adam Kablanian, president and chief executive officer of Virage Logic. "Synopsys' open, integrated design implementation platform combined with our silicon proven 90 nm semiconductor IP will provide customers with access to a single platform that can dramatically cut costs, deliver higher yielding chips, as well as accelerate production time and efficiency. We congratulate Synopsys on its Galaxy Design Platform and initiative to open Milkyway to the industry and look forward to working with them to provide our mutual customers with the capabilities needed to meet their advanced IC design challenges."
Virtual Silicon
"As a leading supplier of semiconductor intellectual property to SoC designers, we look forward to delivering our industry leading IP in support of Synopsys' Galaxy Design Platform, " said John A. Ford, vice president of marketing at Virtual Silicon." Our customers will benefit greatly from improved interoperability of tools, and it will be faster for Virtual Silicon to develop products based on a common, open database platform. We are excited by Synopsys' move to open Milkyway to the industry and look forward to working with Synopsys to provide customers with capability in meeting their nanometer design challenges."
Universities
Berkeley Wireless Research Center
“As a leading research and education institution, we at the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC) and the college of engineering of the University of California at Berkeley augment and advance our pioneering technology with support from Synopsys,” said Professor Jan Rabaey, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at BWRC. “The design platform, with its modern tools and flexible Milkyway open database, will help accelerate our innovation in all aspects of the next generation of information technology and communication devices.”
Carnegie Mellon University
"Complex integrated circuit design demands advanced tools and database expertise,” said Herman Schmidt, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “As we develop new technologies for the ICs of the future, we leverage Synopsys' modern design tools. The Milkyway database and design implementation platform will enable us to accelerate our efforts even further."
Case Western Reserve University
“At Case Western Reserve University, we are grateful to Synopsys for supporting our advanced research and education programs,” Dr. Christos Papachristou, professor, department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Case Western Reserve University. “Synopsys’ new initiative of an integrated design platform and open database will further promote our success.”
Georgia Institute of Technology
"As assistant professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology, we are excited about
the possibilities opened up for collaboration where our CAD tool research can interact
not only with university research tools but now also with state-of-the-art Synopsys tools
through Synopsys' Milkyway design database," said Assistant Professors Sung Kyu Lim and Vincent Mooney, school of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. "This will further help us advance our curriculum to continue to produce the largest, highly educated pool of engineering graduates in the United States."
Illinois Institute of Technology
“At the Illinois Institute of Technology, we are researching advanced techniques for design and implementation of future nanometer ICs,” said James Stine, professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology. “Using the Synopsys design platform, with its state-of-the art EDA tools and open Milkyway database, will help enable our success for the next-generation of VLSI designs.”
San Jose State University
“Our faculty and students appreciate and benefit from access to the most advanced EDA tools available today,” Professor Tri Caohuu, department of Electrical Engineering at San Jose State University. “Synopsys continues to provide these as demonstrated by the new design platform and open Milkyway database.”
Syracuse University
“Exploring the future of design automation for deep sub-micron technologies and complex designs requires powerful EDA tools. In order for universities to educate the new generation of engineers and scientists in the field of micro-electronics, partnership between industry and academia is critical. Synopsys’ commitment to this partnership is again demonstrated by their introduction of the design platform and open Milkyway database to universities.”
Texas A&M University
“At Texas A&M, our advanced research groups capitalize on the strong
support from Synopsys,” said Weiping Shi, associate professor, department of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University. “We anticipate making even more strides forward with the Synopsys design platform and open Milkyway database.”
University of Colorado
“Synopsys’ new design platform, built upon the open Milkyway database, will allow us to expand the EDA toolset for our students,” said Dr. Michael Ciletti, professor at University of Colorado. “Our vision is to teach students how to design complex ICs and end up with real, working silicon.”
University of Tennessee
“We are excited about receiving the Synopsys Milkyway environment and database that will provide a fully integrated design tool package,” said Don Bouldin, professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Tennessee. “This will allow us to concentrate on research and education by minimizing integration efforts.”
For more information about Synopsys products, support services or training, visit us on the web at www.synopsys.com, contact your local sales representative or call 650.584.5000.
