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| As of July 28, 2011 Cadence is parting company with CMO John Bruggeman, whose picture has been promptly removed from the company's Executive Team profile page. |
Reports have now been confirmed that John Bruggeman, Cadence's CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), will be leaving the company on August 14th.
Form 8-K for CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS INC
29-Jul-2011
Change in Directors or Principal Officers
Item 5.02. Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers. John J. Bruggeman II, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. ("Cadence") will be leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. On July 28, 2011, Cadence entered into an agreement with Mr. Bruggeman (the "Transition Agreement") providing for his resignation as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Under the Transition Agreement and subject to certain terms and conditions set forth therein, Cadence and Mr. Bruggeman have agreed, among other items, that Mr. Bruggeman will remain with Cadence as a non-executive employee through August 14, 2011 to assist with transitional matters relating to his function. During this period, Mr. Bruggeman will continue to be eligible to receive his base salary and participate in Cadence's compensation and benefit programs. Under the Transition Agreement, effective August 14, 2011, Mr. Bruggeman's full-time employment will terminate and Mr. Bruggeman will become a part-time employee, at which time Mr. Bruggeman will also become entitled to receive the same benefits as he is entitled to as a result of termination of his employment without cause as set forth in the Executive Transition and Release Agreement included as an exhibit to his Employment Agreement with Cadence, effective August 3, 2010.
Bruggeman became well-known as the architect of Cadence's "EDA360 Vision", which has been a very controversial topic since it was published in 2010. While some bloggers see this as the end of EDA360 (see Daniel Neni's post CDNS EDA360 is DEAD!), the company has invested greatly in positioning their entire product portfolio and branding for alignment with the "manifesto". Cadence has called EDA360 a "Blueprint to Battle ‘Profitability Gap’; Counters Semiconductor Industry’s Greatest Threat". The company has also heavily promoted EDA360 through social media, with a microsite dedicated to evangelizing EDA360 as "The Way Forward for Electronic Design".
Bruggeman's short tenure at Cadence, after being hired less than two years ago, continues the instability in the company's executive offices that began with the tumultuous Mike Fister era.In the past year, the company hired a PR firm to survey outsiders regarding opinions on the entire executive team. Further changes may be imminent.
A story out of the Nielsen polling service this week - "In U.S. Smartphone Market, Android is Top Operating System, Apple is Top Manufacturer", referencing June 2011 survey data, attributed a 39% share of the U.S. smartphone market to the Android operating system. Nielsen puts Apple’s iPhone in second place with 28% of the U.S. market.The Nielsen U.S. numbers for Android match IDC's worldwide tracking data, published on June 9, which give Android a 39% share to Apple's 18.2% worldwide share.
Just last month, another story published at CNN Money - "Needham: Android's market share peaked in March", claimed that Android's U.S. market share had fallen "from 52.4% to 49.5%". The Money/Fortune Magazine article referenced a note to clients that was published by Charles Wolf, a senior analyst at Needham Equity Research. This story garnered a lot of publicity for the statement that this was Android's "first sequential loss in any region of the world since early 2009". It's interesting to note that Wolf also used IDC data as a basis for his analysis.
According to CNN Money, Wolf also claimed that Apple's share of the U.S. smartphone market increased by 12.3% to 29.5% in Q1 2011. Together, Wolf's analysis gives roughly 80% of the U.S. smartphone market to Android and Apple. But what about Blackberry manufacturer RIM, the not so long ago leader of U.S. smartphone market, not to mention Microsoft and Window Phone 7? In March of this year, the same CNN Money published "Android passes BlackBerry as No. 1 on smartphones", in which they gave 30.4% of the U.S. market to RIM. Has the Blackberry fallen off the American map in just 3 months?
To triangulate, we can look at another recent analysis - from the Wall Street Journal on July 5. In "Apple's US Smartphone Market Share Tops RIM's -ComScore", the analysis by market research company comScore found that
"during the three months ending in May 2011, 76.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones... Among smartphone owners, Apple accounted for 26.6%... RIM followed accounting for 24.7% of the market"According to the WSJ report on comScore, Android's market share "jumped to 38.1% from 33%". The Needham analysis by Wolf, and the headline-grabbing claim that Android peaked and is losing ground to Apple, looks to be a little off.
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| The PokenSPARK combines NFC technology with Amazon cloud-based backend support to facilitate social networking, allowing users to "collect people, places and things with a touch". |
The sample shown is one of the company's 2nd generation devices, which does not use NFC (near-field communications), but the company is about to release an NFC-equipped version in the same form factor. Denny Mayer, VP of North American business development, speaking at a recent Santa Clara IEEE Consumer Electronics Meeting, said that the company has sold 1 million Pokens. Poken also will be embedding their technology in mobile phones, and have recently struck a deal to provide NFC technology for Nokia.
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| The Poken stores no data other than device serial numbers, and this link to the Poken user hub website. |
To use a Poken, users touch their devices to each other until the spot glows green.The Poken then records the contact, and the time at which it occurred. Pokens only store device serial numbers, along with a link to the Poken site. Pokens contain a small Lithium battery, that will be sufficient for approximately 200 touches in the NFC version.
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| The Poken character is a cap for the USB connector. |
When you remove the character cap from a Poken, you can see the USB connector. The sample device glowed red for a few minutes after it was removed from a computer. When the device is connected through a USB port, you can click on the stored Start_Poken.html link to go to the Poken hub user site. The device then needs to be registered. While the link did not work for me, I was able to login and create an account by going directly to poken.com.
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| When you plug in a Poken for the 1st time, you must link it to your account. |
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| You can upload a picture and add your social networks to your Poken account. |
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| The Poken timeline shows your contacts, and the time at which you exchanged information. |
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| Poken can deliver collateral materials to users through Amazon cloud services. |
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| When you click on a contact in your timeline, you can view the users profile. |
You can click on any of the other Poken users in your timeline to get information on their profile.
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| Contacts appear in your Poken timeline, along with buttons to connect through popular social media web sites. |
When you hover over a contact in your Poken timeline, you can see buttons for popular social media web sites that the user has included in their profile. If you click on the button, it will take you directly to that users Twitter page, LinkedIn profile, etc. This can be especially useful for LinkedIn, to facilitate keeping track of where and when you made a business contact. You can also see user's social media status updates, such as the tweets appearing above the users in the picture above.
Poken is a great replacement for the scanning of bar codes at trade shows, an error prone process that must often be repeated several times to capture information. It also allows conference organizers and exhibitors to "go green", eliminating paper and plastic waste. By combining NFC and the cloud, Poken has developed a clever and easy to use mechanism for social networking, that can also be connected to brands to facilitate collection of valuable analytic data.
Silicon Valley-based consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo.com has published the results of a survey they conducted of more than 1000 U.S. consumers, "distributed across gender, age, income and location", to study factors that may influence 1st-time purchasers of tablet computers. Retrevo did not provide further details of the survey population, other than to say that:
The pie chart breaks down stated preferences only of participants who do not currently own a tablet, but who expressed an intention to buy one this year. One could conclude that the survey sample was pretty tech savvy, as nearly half as many people as those who expressed an interest in an Android tablet showed an interest in "Other". According to another recent report from Strategy Analytics, in Q2 of this year "other" tablet shipments accounted for only 8.6% of worldwide units shipped. Of 15.1M units shipped, according to Strategy Analytics, Apple's share fell to 61.3% from 91.3% one year ago. Android's market share increased from 2.9% to 30.1% over the same period.
Retrevo's results indicate that price is far and away the most important consideration influencing tablet purchases, although the question was asked under the premise of "with similar features". In comparing the iPad vs. Android, Retrevo asked:
By posing the choices this way, Retrevo apparently assumed that consumers would think of Amazon as a manufacturer from their Kindle eReader, and similarly match Barnes & Noble with their Nook. But given the result on price as the #1 decision point, consumers could just have been choosing the world's largest online retailer as the place they would most likely look for the best deal. Retrevo's implication that consumers are looking to buy a less expensive Android-based tablet MANUFACTURED by Amazon is questionable.
"The data for this report came from a study of online individuals conducted exclusively for Retrevo in June of 2011, by an independent panel."
The pie chart breaks down stated preferences only of participants who do not currently own a tablet, but who expressed an intention to buy one this year. One could conclude that the survey sample was pretty tech savvy, as nearly half as many people as those who expressed an interest in an Android tablet showed an interest in "Other". According to another recent report from Strategy Analytics, in Q2 of this year "other" tablet shipments accounted for only 8.6% of worldwide units shipped. Of 15.1M units shipped, according to Strategy Analytics, Apple's share fell to 61.3% from 91.3% one year ago. Android's market share increased from 2.9% to 30.1% over the same period.Retrevo's results indicate that price is far and away the most important consideration influencing tablet purchases, although the question was asked under the premise of "with similar features". In comparing the iPad vs. Android, Retrevo asked:
Would you consider buying an Android tablet with similar features over a base model $499 iPad?
- 79% of people would if it cost less than $250In an apparent multiple-choice question, in which participants could choose more than one brand, the Retrevo Pulse survey asked:
- 48% of people would if it cost less than $300
- 31% of people would if it cost less than $400
Which of these manufacturers would you seriously consider buying a tablet from?
- 55% Amazon
- 38% Dell
- 38% Samsung
- 31% Motorola
- 31% HP
- 24% RIM
- 21% Barnes & Noble
By posing the choices this way, Retrevo apparently assumed that consumers would think of Amazon as a manufacturer from their Kindle eReader, and similarly match Barnes & Noble with their Nook. But given the result on price as the #1 decision point, consumers could just have been choosing the world's largest online retailer as the place they would most likely look for the best deal. Retrevo's implication that consumers are looking to buy a less expensive Android-based tablet MANUFACTURED by Amazon is questionable.
What is NFC (near-field communications), and why is it a hot technology?
That is the topic on the agenda for the monthly Santa Clara Valley IEEE Consumer Electronics Society meeting, which will be held at nVIDIA on Tuesday evening - July 26th. Joseph Wei, who is the chapter's Program Chair and the VP of Business Development at Wong's International will moderate a panel of NFC industry experts, across the spectrum from semiconductors to devices and applications.
Panel
- Vik Pavate, VP of Business Development, Kovio. Kovio's founders began their work to develop printable electronics at MIT's Media Laboratory. The company is now based in Silicon Valley, where they are developing new techniques for the fabrication of RFID devices.
- Roshan Vijayshankar, Mobile Application Architect, NXP Semiconductors. NXP Semiconductor co-invented NFC technology, and is now one of the leading providers of integrated circuits for NFC applications.
- Denny Mayer, VP of Business Development, Poken. Poken manufacturers a variety of NFC devices with an emphasis on social networking, allowing users to "collect people, places and things with a touch".
- Curt Carrender, Founder, Thinkify. Thinkify specializes in the development of custom solutions for embedded RFID applications.
While much speculation continues regarding how and when Sprint - the 1st 4G operator in the U.S., will begin its inevitable transition from WiMAX to LTE, operators in other parts of the world have already started the process. Malaysia-based WiMAX solutions provider Greenpacket, owner of network operator Packet One Networks (P1), and 4G modem chip designer Sequans have announced a collaboration for the development of dual-mode WiMAX/LTE devices. According to a joint press release, Greenpacket says that they are "testing Sequans technology to develop LTE and dual-mode WiMAX/LTE reference designs as part of its strategy to launch a complete ecosystem of 4G networking solutions and devices by the end of 2011".
“We are testing Sequans’ system-on-chip technology to develop LTE reference designs, including a dual-mode WiMAX/LTE reference design for our operator customers primarily in Asia, CALA and Middle East,” said, James Wang, Senior Vice President of Innovation, Strategies and Development (ISD) at Greenpacket. “We intend to offer our solutions to early adopters of LTE such as P1 in support of its LTE/WiMAX coexistence strategy.”
Sequans won the design-in for Sprint's first 4G smartphone, the HTC EVO, and have been developing a number of collaborations to move into the LTE market, first for TD-LTE (time-division duplex) - which would be the most likely migration path for the Sprint-Clearwire 4G spectrum assets. With competitors such as AT&T and T-Mobile causing consumer confusion by relabeling their 3G HSPA+ offerings as "4G", it will be critical for Sprint to make their WiMAX-LTE transition as seamless as possible for their customers. Introducing yet another incompatible version of 4G can only hurt their chance of keeping up with Verizon's rapid LTE rollout.
To address this issue Sequans has created a "4Sight" program, to promote their WiMAX-LTE coexistence technologies and solutions for operators and device manufacturers. Competitors such as Beceem, now acquired by Broadcom, are also developing dual-mode 4G chips.
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DesignArt Networks has released the single-chip DAN3000 evaluation kit, which doubles as a reference design for all-in-one base stations and gigabit+ mobile backhaul for any spectrum. |
DesignArt Networks, headquartered in Israel, is a 5-year old company that specializes in "base station on a chip" SoCs (systems on a chip) for wireless infrastructure. The company first introduced the DAN 2400 for WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) base stations in 2008, and followed with announcement of the 2nd generation DAN 3000 series for LTE (Long-Term Evolution) in 2010.
Joachim Hallwachs, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at DesignArt Networks, says that the company's processors integrate special-purpose DSPs (digital signal processors) that provide a generic platform which designers can use to build any baseband product for a 3G or 4G RAN (radio-access network). While competitors are announcing base station SoCs in a variety of configurations for small to medium and large cells, Hallwachs says that DesignArt's DAN 3000 does not require any change in architecture for heterogeneous networks - the cost, power and performance are sufficient for any application.DesignArt uses the same 22-core SoC architecture, and modifies just the "speeds and feeds" by integrating different I/Os that are required for macro, micro or pico cells. Software is also 100% reusable, so that customers can use the same development environment regardless of application.
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| DesignArt's SoC platform integrates the RF-DFE with DSP, hardware acceleration and RISC cores to support design of multimode software-defined radio base stations for heterogeneous networks. |
DesignArt develops their 22-core SoCs by combining 6 of their own proprietary DSP designs with 12 of Tensilica's customizable LX3 DPUs (Dataplane Processor Units), and a quad-core ARM controller for base station applications. The company is fabricating the chips in a 40nm TSMC process. Hallwachs claims that DesignArt is the only company to have integrated the RF-DFE (radio frequency digital front end) for remote radio heads on their base station SoC. This significantly lowers system power dissipation, he says, by enabling designers to squeeze more performance from the PA (power amplifier). DesignArt is focused on power dissipation at both the system and chip level. The use of only 6 DSP cores running at only 600 MHz, augmented by extensive hardware acceleration, lowers power consumption compared to competitors architectures according to DesignArt.
By providing a complete hardware and production-grade software solution, Hallwachs says that DesignArt is like a combination of TI and mimoOn, with a focus on the PHY (physical layer). Customers can purchase the software as a reference design to modify for their own use with no warranty, or license the software as a complete certified end-to-end product. For the MAC (media access control) layer, the company partners with companies like Aricent, or their tier-1 customers often develop their own solutions.
DesignArt has now released reference evaluation kits for the DAN3000, in two different versions. The first version, for the DAN3400 & 3300, supports LTE-advanced PHYs with features for carrier aggregation, 4X4 MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) antennas, and self-backhaul.Early customer tests have achieved 1.2Gbps LTE data rates from the 600 MHz DSPs, while consuming less than 8 watts of power in a 4-sector macro base station on a chip configuration. The small cell DAN3400 has been tested to support 256 users of HSPA and LTE concurrently, while also running the self-backhaul on the same chip. Hallwachs says that the company will have two Tier-1 customers completing trials in Q3 and Q4 of this year, the 4-Sector macro base station and a 2-carrier picocell application, both in 20 MHz LTE.
The second evaluation kit, based on the DAN3200, provides a variety of RF front ends and a UMB (Unified Mobile Backhaul) software pack for gigabit+ wireless backhaul applications. DesignArt’s small cell backhaul solution combines two low-cost options in a single-SoC development platform, a multi-hop NLOS (non- line of sight) backhaul in sub-6GHz spectrum and short-range LOS (line of sight) backhaul in unlicensed millimeter wave spectrum (E-band).
With 4G operators moving to heterogenous networks that will require filling in coverage with smaller cells, the integration of backhaul on the same chip with the RAN provides significant cost savings. It also helps to resolve the major issue that has limited more extensive deployment of femto cells. DesignArt Networks claims to have solved the small cell backhaul problem, which Hallwachs hints will be demonstrated by a "very large" U.S. operator in Q3.
Related articles:
Will 4G wireless networks move basestations to the cloud?
Texas Instruments adds basestation SoCs for small cells
Mindspeed: 5G networks will be enabled by software-defined cognitive radios
The EE Daily News is taking a summer break. While we're away, please enjoy a little vacation humor from Dilbert, and check out one of our Top 10 articles from the last month.
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
- The Mali GPU, and ARM's 5-year strategy to dominate visual computing
- Apache and AWR acquisitions offer growth to the EDA industry
- #48DAC: Jim Hogan and Paul McLellan present a mini-MBA on EDA startups
- The Woz at #48DAC (part 1) - on becoming an engineer.
- #48DAC reports: Jasper collaborates with ARM to verify ACE multicore SoCs
- Show me the money - the valuation of Apache Design Solutions
- Mindspeed: 5G networks will be enabled by software-defined cognitive radios
- Will 4G wireless networks move basestations to the cloud?
- Texas Instruments adds basestation SoCs for small cells
- EDA Standards Groups Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative will merge
The EE Daily News is taking a summer break. While we're away, please enjoy a little vacation humor from Dilbert, and check out one of our Top 10 articles from the last month.
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
- The Mali GPU, and ARM's 5-year strategy to dominate visual computing
- Apache and AWR acquisitions offer growth to the EDA industry
- #48DAC: Jim Hogan and Paul McLellan present a mini-MBA on EDA startups
- The Woz at #48DAC (part 1) - on becoming an engineer.
- #48DAC reports: Jasper collaborates with ARM to verify ACE multicore SoCs
- Show me the money - the valuation of Apache Design Solutions
- Mindspeed: 5G networks will be enabled by software-defined cognitive radios
- Will 4G wireless networks move basestations to the cloud?
- Texas Instruments adds basestation SoCs for small cells
- EDA Standards Groups Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative will merge
The EE Daily News is taking a summer break. While we're away, please enjoy a little vacation humor from Dilbert, and check out one of our Top 10 articles from the last month.
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
- The Mali GPU, and ARM's 5-year strategy to dominate visual computing
- Apache and AWR acquisitions offer growth to the EDA industry
- #48DAC: Jim Hogan and Paul McLellan present a mini-MBA on EDA startups
- The Woz at #48DAC (part 1) - on becoming an engineer.
- #48DAC reports: Jasper collaborates with ARM to verify ACE multicore SoCs
- Show me the money - the valuation of Apache Design Solutions
- Mindspeed: 5G networks will be enabled by software-defined cognitive radios
- Will 4G wireless networks move basestations to the cloud?
- Texas Instruments adds basestation SoCs for small cells
- EDA Standards Groups Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative will merge
The EE Daily News is taking a summer break. While we're away, please enjoy a little vacation humor from Dilbert, and check out one of our Top 10 articles from the last month.
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
- The Mali GPU, and ARM's 5-year strategy to dominate visual computing
- Apache and AWR acquisitions offer growth to the EDA industry
- #48DAC: Jim Hogan and Paul McLellan present a mini-MBA on EDA startups
- The Woz at #48DAC (part 1) - on becoming an engineer.
- #48DAC reports: Jasper collaborates with ARM to verify ACE multicore SoCs
- Show me the money - the valuation of Apache Design Solutions
- Mindspeed: 5G networks will be enabled by software-defined cognitive radios
- Will 4G wireless networks move basestations to the cloud?
- Texas Instruments adds basestation SoCs for small cells
- EDA Standards Groups Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative will merge
The EE Daily News is taking a summer break. While we're away, please enjoy a little vacation humor from Dilbert, and check out one of our Top 10 articles from the last month.
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
- The Mali GPU, and ARM's 5-year strategy to dominate visual computing
- Apache and AWR acquisitions offer growth to the EDA industry
- #48DAC: Jim Hogan and Paul McLellan present a mini-MBA on EDA startups
- The Woz at #48DAC (part 1) - on becoming an engineer.
- #48DAC reports: Jasper collaborates with ARM to verify ACE multicore SoCs
- Show me the money - the valuation of Apache Design Solutions
- Mindspeed: 5G networks will be enabled by software-defined cognitive radios
- Will 4G wireless networks move basestations to the cloud?
- Texas Instruments adds basestation SoCs for small cells
- EDA Standards Groups Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative will merge
The EE Daily News is taking a summer break. While we're away, please enjoy a little vacation humor from Dilbert, and check out one of our Top 10 articles from the last month.
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
- The Mali GPU, and ARM's 5-year strategy to dominate visual computing
- Apache and AWR acquisitions offer growth to the EDA industry
- #48DAC: Jim Hogan and Paul McLellan present a mini-MBA on EDA startups
- The Woz at #48DAC (part 1) - on becoming an engineer.
- #48DAC reports: Jasper collaborates with ARM to verify ACE multicore SoCs
- Show me the money - the valuation of Apache Design Solutions
- Mindspeed: 5G networks will be enabled by software-defined cognitive radios
- Will 4G wireless networks move basestations to the cloud?
- Texas Instruments adds basestation SoCs for small cells
- EDA Standards Groups Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative will merge
SiliconBlue® Technologies has announced availability of the iCE40™ mobileFPGA™ (field-programmable gate array) family of CMDs (custom mobile devices), dubbed “Los Angeles”. The iCE40 family consists of the LP (Low-Power) series - which SiliconBlue has designed for smartphone applications, and the HX (High-Speed) series - which they are targeting at tablets. SiliconBlue is fabricating the new devices in a low-power 40-nm standard CMOS process at TSMC, resulting in twice the logic capacity of the company's previous 65-nm devices, according to company CEO Kapil Shankar.
SiliconBlue, headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, was founded in 2006 and until now has focused their sales force primarily at consumer electronics companies and ODMs (original device manufacturers) in the Asia-Pacific region, including China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Customers include Samsung and LG. The company is now looking to expand their business in the U.S. and Europe.
The CMD, or custom mobile device, is descriptive of SiliconBlue's business model as well as their target applications. The company works with customers to define system-level requirements, but then SiliconBlue directly implements the design from their RTL (register-transfer level) IP (intellectual property). This can be done by SiliconBlue's teams in China and India in as little as 2 weeks for a small design, with an average time to prototype of 4 to 5 weeks. Shankar explains that his Asian customers are used to getting ready-made custom designs from chip vendors, rather than implementing programmable designs on their own. With typical smartphone development times of only 6 to 9 months, there is no time to produce a "reactive" ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) in order to add features and functions, he says.
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| The SiliconBlue CMD is a companion device for application processors (source SiliconBlue) |
Designers use SiliconBlue CMDs as companion devices to application processors, to add support for functions such as sensor management, high-speed custom connectivity and HD (high-definition) video and imaging. The CMD enables product differentiation, according to Shankar, especially in smartphones where competitors may all be using the same underlying processor and operating system, such as Android. SiliconBlue customizes the mobileFPGA by programming a NVCM (non-volatile configuration memory) - essentially a OTM (one-time programmable memory), that the company integrates into their SRAM-based (static random access memory) FPGAs. (See "Activity picks up in non-volatile memory IP"). SiliconBlue eschews the typical FPGA method of using Flash programmability, which allows them to lower cost by manufacturing in standard CMOS processes.
In order to achieve the low power that is so critical for mobile applications, SiliconBlue employs full CMOS LUTs (lookup tables) to minimize supply leakage. The mobileFPGAs also include power-down functions on every LUT, interconnect line, ALU (arithmetic logic unit) and MUX (multiplexer).
In order to achieve the low power that is so critical for mobile applications, SiliconBlue employs full CMOS LUTs (lookup tables) to minimize supply leakage. The mobileFPGAs also include power-down functions on every LUT, interconnect line, ALU (arithmetic logic unit) and MUX (multiplexer).
SiliconBlue says that the new Los Angeles family of mobileFPGAs are the industry’s first to be available in a 2.5 x 2.5mm micro plastic BGA package. The iCE40 LP-series, which is 50% faster than the previous generation 65nm devices, will be available in 640,1K, 4K, 8K, 16K logic cell configurations. The LP can be operated with up to a 90MHz pixel clock to support WXGA (Wide eXtended Graphics Array) graphics resolution of 1366x768 for 720p displays.
For tablets, you can operate the HX-series CMDs with up to a 150MHz pixel clock to support WUXGA (Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array) 1920x1200 resolution with dual LVDS (low-voltage differential signaling), HD720p 60Hz (1280x720 resolution) and HD1080p 30Hz (1920x1080 resolution). The HX will be available with 4K, 8K, 12K, 16K and 24K logic cell capacities.
Pricing and Availability
The iCE40LP8K and iCE40HX8K, 8K logic cell, LP–Series and HX–Series devices are available now. Smallest package devices start at $1.99 USD in high volume. SiliconBlue expects most members of the Los Angeles mobileFPGA family to be in full production by Q4 2011.
The EE Daily News is taking a summer break. While we're away, please enjoy a little vacation humor from Dilbert, and check out one of our Top 10 articles from the last month.
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
The EE Daily News Top 10 List
- The Mali GPU, and ARM's 5-year strategy to dominate visual computing
- Apache and AWR acquisitions offer growth to the EDA industry
- #48DAC: Jim Hogan and Paul McLellan present a mini-MBA on EDA startups
- The Woz at #48DAC (part 1) - on becoming an engineer.
- #48DAC reports: Jasper collaborates with ARM to verify ACE multicore SoCs
- Show me the money - the valuation of Apache Design Solutions
- Mindspeed: 5G networks will be enabled by software-defined cognitive radios
- Will 4G wireless networks move basestations to the cloud?
- Texas Instruments adds basestation SoCs for small cells
- EDA Standards Groups Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative will merge
The July 1st, 2011 EE Daily News article "Apache and AWR acquisitions offer growth to the EDA industry" provided a review of two recent EDA industry acquisitions - the ANSYS purchase of Apache Design Solutions, and the National Instruments purchase of AWR.
Prior to the ANSYS acquisition, Apache (on March 14) had filed a form S-1 with the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), for a proposed IPO (initial public offering) of shares with an estimated value of $75 million. In their June 30 announcement, ANSYS offered to acquire Apache for $310 million in cash. The juxtaposition of those two valuations may have inadvertently implied a 4X increase in the company's valuation to some readers, which is not the case.
According to their S-1 filing, Apache had "17,190,188 shares of common stock outstanding as of February 28, 2011". Also, as the table above indicates, Apache started offering stock options to employees in 2009. There is a mix of science and guesswork in arriving at a fair value for the stock of a private company, and Apache discusses this in their S-1 along with a reference to standard practices published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Nevertheless, by multiplying the 17 million outstanding shares by the latest estimated fair value, we see that Apache valued the company at approximately $117 million in March. So, the $310 million ANSYS acquisition multiple is 2.65X, not 4X.
Another way to look at it is that an IPO is an offering to sell a portion of a company, hence the resulting dilution, and not the entire company. If one assumes that Apache was willing to accept ~20% dilution for the $75 million IPO proceeds, then their "pre-money" (i.e. 80% of post-IPO) valuation would be $300 million.
Without getting deeper into comparative balance sheet analysis, the estimated $300 million valuation (and $310 million purchase price) puts the Apache acquisition well in line with Cadence's $315 million acquisition of Denali in 2010. At the time, Denali's trailing annual revenues were approximately $43 million. Apache reported 2010 revenue of $44M.
Prior to the ANSYS acquisition, Apache (on March 14) had filed a form S-1 with the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), for a proposed IPO (initial public offering) of shares with an estimated value of $75 million. In their June 30 announcement, ANSYS offered to acquire Apache for $310 million in cash. The juxtaposition of those two valuations may have inadvertently implied a 4X increase in the company's valuation to some readers, which is not the case.
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| Apache Design Solution's internal pre-IPO valuation was $6.80/share (source APACHE S-1 dated March 14, 2011) |
Nevertheless, by multiplying the 17 million outstanding shares by the latest estimated fair value, we see that Apache valued the company at approximately $117 million in March. So, the $310 million ANSYS acquisition multiple is 2.65X, not 4X.
Another way to look at it is that an IPO is an offering to sell a portion of a company, hence the resulting dilution, and not the entire company. If one assumes that Apache was willing to accept ~20% dilution for the $75 million IPO proceeds, then their "pre-money" (i.e. 80% of post-IPO) valuation would be $300 million.
Without getting deeper into comparative balance sheet analysis, the estimated $300 million valuation (and $310 million purchase price) puts the Apache acquisition well in line with Cadence's $315 million acquisition of Denali in 2010. At the time, Denali's trailing annual revenues were approximately $43 million. Apache reported 2010 revenue of $44M.
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| EDA revenue has trended downward over the last four years (source EDAC) |
It is no secret that the EDA (electronic design automation) industry has been searching for growth opportunities for the last several years, against a backdrop of declining revenue and consolidation due to M&A (mergers and acquisitions) and attrition. The picture has improved somewhat in the last year, but EDAC (EDA consortium) annual revenue for 2010 - at $5.285 billion, only marks a return to the peak numbers of four years earlier - at $5.274 billion in 2006 (source EDAC).
Lacking organic growth, EDA has sought to "expand the tent", moving further into adjacencies such as silicon IP and embedded systems and software, each a critical component in SoC realization. Companies such as Cadence espouse a vision (EDA360) of moving upward in the electronics value chain, from SoC realization to system realization. Now, recent acquisition activity suggests that companies which already serve customers at levels beyond traditional EDA also see value in expanding into the adjacencies. EDA's growth path may be opening up from the outside in, rather than from the inside out.
First NI (National Instruments), a company that has been around since 1976 and is a fixture on many engineers workbench, with hardware and software for test and measurement, announced the $58M acquisition of AWR - a small vendor of EDA tools for designing RF and high-frequency components and systems. In explaining their motivation, NI said
The fast design cycles and increasing complexity of RF and wireless systems demand better integration between design and test. RF system designers need to validate their simulations with actual measurements, while RF test engineers need to increase test reuse and decrease test time through more design integration.Then, earlier this week, ANSYS - a provider of tools for multiphysics simulation, the analysis of structural dynamics, fluid mechanics, and EM (electromagnetic) simulation software, announced that they had signed an agreement to acquire Apache Design Solutions for approximately $310 million in cash. ANSYS had previously participated in SoC design only at the package level, with tools which they acquired from Ansoft for signal-integrity analysis and system verification of high-performance IC/package/board designs.
Apache Design Solutions had recently filed for an initial public offering, with an estimated value of $75M. Apache's focus has been on simulation and analysis tools for low-power design, with chip-level power rail and noise analysis, and recently expanding into EM analysis for chip-package co-design. Unlike the EDA industry in general, Apache has been growing rapidly despite the recession, from revenue of $25.7M in 2008, to $34.6M in 2009, to $44.0M last year according to their SEC filing. As with the NI purchase of AWR, executives from Ansys and Apache pointed to the value of combining tools that heretofore were used separately by engineers to produce a total product solution.
"The combination of these two great companies with emerging 3DIC technologies will lead to considerable advances within electronics," said Dr. Andrew T. Yang, co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board for Apache. "The complementary nature of our electronic and thermal product offerings provides key technological strengths that enhance our ability to deliver comprehensive, innovative and world-class simulation technologies that customers demand."For expert insight on these acquisitions, the EE Daily News contacted veteran EDA investor Jim Hogan , whose recent investments have included AutoESL - acquired by Xilinx.
In Hogan's view -
"the biggest strategic outcome of this is EDA’s footprint has expanded to include Finite Element Analysis. This makes perfect since given the 3D activity on chip and board (Intel’s 3D transistors for example, TSVs, etc..)."
Jim Hogan said that the Apache and AWR acquisitions are good for EDA, because they have brought two companies with higher multiples than you will find with EDA companies into the picture. It will be strategic for a company like Anysys to continue on a growth path into EDA, Hogan expects that they may next go for a SPICE engine and simulation platform. Companies such as BDA (Berkeley Design Automation), Infinisim, Solido could be next on the shopping list.Other EDA companies currently playing in the same space with Ansys-Apache include Sigrity, and Nimbic - who are moving to a cloud-based offering.
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