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 of integrated circuits, simulators for development and debugging environments that assist in the design of the logic for chips and computer systems. In recent years, Synopsys has expanded its products and services to include application security testing.

Synopsys has gained attention due to its relationship with various Chinese state entities. In 2018, Synopsys formed a partnership with the People's Liberation Army National Defence University and, in 2022, the company came under investigation by the United States Department of Justice for technology transfers to sanctioned entities in China.

History

Synopsys was founded by Aart J de Geus and David Gregory in 1986 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The company was initially established as Optimal Solutions with a charter to develop and market synthesis technology developed by the team at General Electric.

In 2022, Synopsys was reported to be under investigation by the United States Department of Commerce for unlawful technology transfers to sanctioned companies such as Huawei's HiSilicon and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation.

In July 2022, agents from Taiwan's Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau raided the offices of a Synopsys-backed firm on suspicion of illegally poaching engineers from TSMC.

Mergers and acquisitions

Synopsys has made some silicon and design verification acquisitions.

CoWare

CoWare was a supplier of platform-driven electronic system-level (ESL) design software and services acquired by Synopsys in February 2010.

Avanti Corporation

Avanti Corporation (styled as "Avant!) was founded when several former Cadence Design Systems employees bought the startup ArcSys, which was previously merged with Integrated Silicon Solutions (ISS), gaining Avanti its design rule checking and layout versus schematic tool Hercules (including 3D silicon structure modeling), then bought Compass Design Automation, which had fully integrated IC design flow and ASIC libraries, especially its place and route tool, which Avanti reworked to create Saturn and Apollo II; and it also bought TMA (Technology Modeling Associates) which brought their pioneering TCAD and Proteus optical proximity correction tools. This was, by far, Synopsys' most significant and controversial acquisition. At the time Avanti was the #4 company in the EDA industry, and was struggling with a major lawsuit from Cadence for software theft. Avanti was merged into Synopsys on June 6, 2002 during the litigation. Synopsys paid Cadence about $265 million more to end all litigation. Soon after the settlement, the California Supreme Court upheld the lower court's earlier decision. Synopsys then paid an additional $26.1 million to Silvaco to settle two of three Silvaco's suits against Meta-Software, earlier purchased by Avanti, and its president. The lawsuits were filed in 1995 and inherited by Avanti.

Novas Software

Novas Software was a company founded in 1996 to address debugging of chip designs. Novas was purchased by Taiwan-based EDA company SpringSoft in May 2008. SpringSoft and Novas were acquired by Synopsys in 2012.

Numerical Technologies

Numerical Technologies, Inc. was a San Jose-based electronic design automation public (NASDAQ: NMTC) company. The company was primarily known for its intellectual property, software tools and services covering phase-shifting mask technology. On March 3, 2003, it was acquired by Synopsys.

SpringSoft

SpringSoft is a software company that developed VLSI design and debugging software. The company was founded with a grant from the Taiwanese National Science Council in February 1996.

In 1997, SpringSoft established Novas Software in Silicon Valley to market Springsoft's VLSI Debugging software. SpringSoft created a custom layout tool called Laker and a US-based company called Silicon Canvas. In May 2008, SpringSoft purchased Novas Software Silicon Canvas and combined them to form the wholly owned subsidiary SpringSoft USA. SpringSoft employed over 400 people with office locations across the world.

Synopsys announced its acquisition of SpringSoft in 2012.

Synplicity

Synplicity Inc. was a supplier of software for the design of programmable logic devices (FPGAs, PLDs, and CPLDs) used for communications, military/aerospace, consumer, semiconductor, computer and other electronic systems. Synplicity's tools provided logic synthesis, physical synthesis, and verification functions for FPGA, FPGA-based ASIC prototyping, and DSP designers. Synplicity was listed on Nasdaq until it was acquired by Synopsys for $227 million in a transaction finalized May 15, 2008.

ARC International

ARC International PLC was the designer of ARC (Argonaut RISC Core) embedded processors, which were widely used in SoC devices for IoT, storage, digital home, mobile, and automotive applications. ARC International was acquired by Synopsys in 2010.

Black Duck Software

Black Duck Software was a privately held company focused on automating the process of identifying and creating an inventory of open source code used in software applications, as well as detecting known security vulnerabilities and license compliance issues. Black Duck Software was acquired by Synopsys in December of 2017.

WhiteHat Security

In April 2022, Synopsys announced the acquisition of WhiteHat Security for $330 million. WhiteHat Security was founded in 2001 and provides application security as well as insights for DevOps teams.

Divisions

Synopsys has three divisions: Silicon Design and Verification, Silicon Intellectual Property, and Software Integrity.

The Silicon Design and Verification division focuses the design and verification of integrated circuits and designing more advanced processes and models for the manufacturing of those chips.

The Silicon Intellectual Property division focuses on intellectual property for system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs.

The Software Integrity division provides products and services for software security and quality control, including software for DevOps environments, application security programs, software testing tools, and tools for software licensing audits.

Partnerships

In 2018, Synopsys partnered with the People's Liberation Army National Defence University to provide field-programmable gate array design training.

See also

*List of EDA companies
*Comparison of EDA software
*List of tools for static code analysis
*Security information and event management
*Dynamic application security testing

References

External links

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Electronic design automation companies
Electronics companies of the United States
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Companies based in Mountain View, California
American companies established in 1986
Electronics companies established in 1986
1986 establishments in North Carolina