Daisy Systems Corporation, incorporated in 1981 in
Mountain View, California
Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376.
Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is th ...
, was a
computer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering (CAE) is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering analysis tasks. It includes , , , durability and optimization. It is included with computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) ...
company, a pioneer 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 electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work together ...
(EDA) industry.

It was a manufacturer of
computer hardware and
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
for EDA, including
schematic capture
Schematic capture or schematic entry is a step in the design cycle of electronic design automation (EDA) at which the electronic diagram, or electronic schematic of the designed electronic circuit is created by a designer. This is done interact ...
,
logic simulation
Logic simulation is the use of simulation software to predict the behavior of digital circuits and hardware description languages. Simulation can be performed at varying degrees of physical abstraction, such as at the transistor level, gate lev ...
, parameter extraction and other tools for
printed circuit board
A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich str ...
design and semiconductor chip layout.
In mid-1980s, it had a subsidiary in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
, Daisy Systems GmbH and one in Israel.
The company merged with Cadnetix Corporation of
Boulder, Colorado in 1988, with the resulting company then known officially as Daisy/Cadnetix, Inc. with the trade name DAZIX. It filed for protection under
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whet ...
of the Federal Bankruptcy Code in 1990 and was acquired by
Intergraph
Intergraph Corporation was an American software development and services company, which now forms part of Hexagon AB. It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the w ...
later that year. Intergraph incorporated DAZIX into its EDA business unit, which was later spun off as an independent subsidiary named
VeriBest, Inc. VeriBest was ultimately acquired by
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 late 1999. The Veribest tool suite became Mentors flagship layout tool. Today it is known as Mentor Xpedition.
Daisy Systems was founded by
Aryeh Finegold
Aryeh ( fa, اريه) is a village in Firuzeh Rural District, in the Central District of Firuzeh County
Firuzeh County ( fa, شهرستان فیروزه), formerly Binalud County, is in Razavi Khorasan province, Iran. The capital of the co ...
,
David Stamm
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
and
Vinod Khosla; its original investors were Fred Adler and Oak Investment Partners.
Daisy along with
Valid Logic Systems
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (stylized as cādence), headquartered in San Jose, California, is an American multinational computational software company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc. The company produces software, ...
and
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 ...
, collectively known as DMV, added front end design to the existing
computer-aided design aspects of computer automation.
People
Many notable people in the EDA industry once worked for Daisy Systems, including Harvey Jones, who became the CEO of
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 desig ...
, and
Vinod Khosla
Vinod Khosla (born 28 January 1955) is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such ...
, who, a year later in 1982, co-founded
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, ...
. Aryeh Finegold went on to co-found
Mercury Interactive, and Dave Stamm and Don Smith went on to co-found
Clarify Clarification, clarifications, or clarify may refer to:
* Clarification (journalism)
* Clarification (cooking), purification of broths
* Clarification, preparation of clarified butter
Clarified butter is milk fat rendered from butter to se ...
. Tony Zingale became CEO of Clarify and then CEO of Mercury Interactive and later CEO of Jive Software. Mike Schuh co-founded Intrinsa Corporation before joining
Foundation Capital
Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley. The firm was founded in 1995, and in 2012 managed more than $2.4 billion in investment capital.
History
Foundation Capital was founded in 1995.
The firm raised its sevent ...
as General Partner.
George T. Haber
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
went on to work at Sun and later founded
CompCore Multimedia,
GigaPixel,
Mobilygen and
CrestaTech. Dave Millman and Rick Carlson founded EDAC (now
ESD Alliance The Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance) is the international association of companies that provide tools and services for electronic design automation. Until 2016 it was known as the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDA Conso ...
), the industry organization for
Electronic Design Automation
Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work together ...
vendors.
Software
Daisy applications ran on the Daisy-DNIX operating system, a
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
-like operating system running on Intel
80286
The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non- multiplexed address and data buses and also th ...
and later processors.
In 1983
DABL (Daisy Behavioral Language) was developed at Daisy by Fred Chow. It was a hardware modelling language similar to
VHDL
The VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) is a hardware description language (HDL) that can model the behavior and structure of digital systems at multiple levels of abstraction, ranging from the system level down to that of logic gat ...
.
The use of DABL for simulation models of processor interconnection networks is described by Lynn R. Freytag.
References
{{reflist
1981 establishments in California
1990 disestablishments in California
American companies established in 1981
American companies disestablished in 1990
Companies based in Mountain View, California
Computer companies established in 1981
Computer companies disestablished in 1990
Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Electronic design automation companies