EDA Startup Rises From Ashes of ATopTech

Dylan McGrath, EETimes
6/29/2018 00:01 AM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO — A startup, formed from the auctioned assets of ATopTech, showed up at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) here this week open for business and with two well-respected EDA veterans newly added to its leadership team.

Avatar Integrated Systems features substantially all of the technology of ATopTech, including the popular Aprisa and Apogee place-and-route tools used by a number of chip companies. The company also features most of the former employees of ATopTech — including ATopTech co-founder and chief architect Ping San Tzeng — as well as former Cadence Design Systems executives Chi-Ping Hsu and Charlie Huang.

ATopTech filed for bankruptcy last year and put its assets up for sale after losing a long-running legal battle with No. 1 EDA vendor Synopsys. ATopTech’s assets were quietly scooped up in bankruptcy court by Avatar’s Chairman, Jingyuan Han, a Hong Kong businessman and steel magnate who has been listed by Forbes magazine as the 136th richest person in China.

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