Sanquini added that Exemplar will become Mentor's Synthesis Division. Its heuristic-synthesis tool, code-named Atlanta, will replace Exemplar's Leonardo Spectrum, said Anne Sanquini, senior vice president and general manager of Mentor's HDL division. The company is currently working on a new approach to synthesis that it has dubbed “heuristic synthesis.” Mentor Graphics which has long supplied OEM versions of entry-level FPGA tools to vendors such as Actel, Altera, Xilinx and others is also investing in and stepping up development efforts on high-end tools. Synplicity, meanwhile, is still doing business with its mainstream version of Synplify, OEMing that product to Actel, Lattice Semiconductor and QuickLogic. “Certify has been used to transfer a $6.5 million-gate ASIC onto a bunch of FPGAs, so we certainly aren't worried about the capacity of our tools, and we've always had the best accuracy and performance,” said Haines. Haines said Synplicity isn't worried about losing Certify wins to FPGA Compiler II, either. The fact that “both Mentor and Synplicity have tools that can do both ASICs and FPGAs” represents “not only a threat to FPGA Compiler II but also to Design Compiler,” Synopsys' ASIC tool, he said. “I don't hear about the tool much these days, and I think it competes more directly with Synplicity's prototyping tool, Certify.” “FPGA Compiler II was focused on the ASIC designer who wants to prototype an ASIC on a bunch of FPGAs,” said Smith. “Synplicity doubled its growth from 1999 to 2000,” said Smith, adding that Synopsys has “a tough row to hoe” to catch up with Synplicity and even Mentor. Though Smith, who is Gartner Dataquest's chief EDA analyst, has not published FPGA tool market share numbers for 2000, he said the tally will show that Synplicity has the “clear lead in FPGA synthesis,” followed by Mentor Graphics' subsidiary Exemplar Logic Inc. Haines said that Synplify Pro also has capabilities, such as physical synthesis, that FPGA Compiler II lacks. “But I guess the saying is true, 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.' ” “Synopsys is identifying this as a big market a bit late in the game,” said Haines. Synopsys' FPGA Compiler II has been on the market since 1998. Haines pointed out that the company's high-end FPGA synthesis tool, Synplify Pro, which has been out for only a year, owns the high-end synthesis market-share lead. “Synplicity should be or certainly will soon be aware that we are taking high-end FPGA seriously,” said Patterson.Īndy Haines, vice president of marketing for Synplicity, doesn't see Synopsys as a threat.
Indeed, it appears that Synplicity's introduction of an ASIC synthesis tool to compete with Synopsys' Design Compiler at the Design Automation Conference in June is what woke the sleeping giant. Synplicity Inc., which at one time offered stripped-down OEM versions of its Synplify tool, is now also going after the high-end FPGA market. And Synopsys no longer offers a version of FPGA Express supporting all FPGA vendors. did not renew its contract to OEM FPGA Express, leaving Xilinx the only reseller of the product. We will see even more changes going forward.”Īt the same time, Synopsys is deemphasizing its entry-level FPGA synthesis tool, FPGA Express.
SYNPLICITY SYNPLIFY PRO DOWN FULL
“In past years we were competing with one arm tied behind our back, and now we are attacking it with our full ASIC flow and capabilities. “We have increased our investment in high-end FPGA, not only in synthesis but across the broad spectrum of tools,” said Patterson. The Mountain View, Calif., company is bringing more of its ASIC tool expertise into the high-end FPGA flow, she said. Synopsys is taking direct aim at the high-end FPGA tool space and especially Synplicity's market share lead, said Jackie Patterson, director of marketing programs for register transfer level (RTL) synthesis at Synopsys. The company recently announced it has developed links that will allow its formal verification, static timing and rule-checking ASIC tools to work with Xilinx Inc.'s ISE 4.1i tool suite, and is otherwise making forays into the FPGA tool market.īut competitors and Gartner Dataquest analyst Gary Smith said the company may have a hard time passing Synplicity and Mentor Graphics, both of which jumped on the FPGA market opportunity early and are developing new technologies to capitalize on it. is now acting like a serious player in high-end FPGA design.
Once thought of as paying only lip service to FPGA tools, Synopsys Inc.
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