Magma headquarters at Santa Clara Magma Design Automation was a

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

company in the

electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...

(EDA) industry. The company was founded in 1997 and maintained headquarters in San Jose,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, with facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Magma software products were used in major elements of

Integrated circuit design Integrated circuit design, or IC design, is a sub-field of electronics engineering, encompassing the particular logic and circuit design techniques required to design integrated circuits, or ICs. ICs consist of miniaturized electronic component ...

, including: synthesis, placement, routing, power management,

circuit simulation Electronic circuit simulation uses mathematical models to replicate the behavior of an actual electronic device or circuit. Simulation software allows for modeling of circuit operation and is an invaluable analysis tool. Due to its highly accurat ...

, verification and analog/mixed-signal design. Magma was acquired by

Synopsys Synopsys is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Products include tools for logic synthesis and physical design ...

in a merger finalized February 22, 2012 at a cash value of about $523 million, or $7.35 per share.

History

Magma was founded in 1997 by a team including

Rajeev Madhavan Rajeev Madhavan is a serial entrepreneur and investor, and a founder and General Partner of Clear Ventures.

, who served as chairman, CEO and president from the company's inception. The company initially competed primarily with

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999) ...

and Avanti Corporation in physical design but eventually broadened its product portfolio and competed with all three of the largest established EDA companies:

Mentor Graphics Siemens EDA is a US-based electronic design automation (EDA) multinational corporation for electrical engineering and electronics, headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. Founded in 1981 as Mentor Graphics, the company was acquired by Siemens in ...

and

. Magma had a particularly strong presence in the convergence device segment through key customers such as Qualcomm, Broadcom and Texas Instruments. In 2001 Roy Jewell joined Magma as chief operating officer and later that year added the title of president. Magma completed an initial public offering on Nasdaq, under the ticker symbol LAVA, on November 20, 2001 — the last EDA company to go public — and achieved its peak annual revenue of $214.4 million in its 2008 fiscal year. Magma was the fourth largest EDA company by revenue. In 2002 Magma was named to the Red Herring 100 for innovation and business strategy. In 2005 Forbes ranked Magma No. 2 on its list of fastest-growing technology companies.

Key Products and Applications

*Talus: Digital chip implementation. *Tekton:

Static timing analysis Static timing analysis (STA) is a simulation method of computing the expected timing of a Synchronous circuit, synchronous digital circuit without requiring a simulation of the full circuit. High-performance integrated circuits have tradition ...

. *Titan: Analog/mixed-signal design. *FineSim SPICE: Circuit simulation. *SiliconSmart: Library Characterization. *Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS: Physical verification. Magma software was used to design chips for cell phones, networking, automotive products, electronic games, portable music players and digital media.

Companies Acquired

Magma acquired about a dozen companies during its existence, among them Moscape (2000), Silicon Metrics (2003), Mojave (2004), Knights Technology (2006), ACAD Corp. (2006) and Sabio Labs (2008).

Patent Dispute

Magma was involved in a legal dispute with Synopsys beginning in September 2004, when Synopsys sued Magma for allegedly infringing two patents. Claims and counter-claims accelerated, resulting in separate court cases in California and Delaware, and a number of disputed patents. On March 29, 2007, Magma and Synopsys announced the companies had agreed to settle all pending litigation between them. As part of the settlement Magma made a $12.5 million payment to Synopsys and each company cross-licensed four previously disputed patents to the other.

Synopsys Acquisition

On November 30, 2011, Magma and

announced they had entered into a definitive agreement by which Synopsys would buy Magma for $507 million US$. The merger was finalized on February 22, 2012, with cash value of the transaction at about $523 million, or $7.35 per Magma share."Synopsys Completes Acquisition of Magma Design Automation,” February 22, 201

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Key people

Rajeev Madhavan Rajeev Madhavan is a serial entrepreneur and investor, and a founder and General Partner of Clear Ventures.

, chairman of the board and chief executive officer

References

External links

Magma homepage
{{Programmable Logic Electronic design automation companies Companies based in San Jose, California Companies established in 1997