Buying Avatar, Siemens Revives Legendary Place & Route Tool

By Junko Yoshida, EETimes (July 16, 2020)

Siemens has struck a deal to buy Avatar Integrated Systems Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.), a developer of place & route software. Avatar’s tool was once highly rated but discredited by Synopsys back in 2017. The acquisition by Siemens revives it as a strong contender in the place-and-route software segment of the EDA market.

Calling Avatar’s tool a “gem,” Joseph Sawicki, executive vice president, Mentor IC EDA, Siemens Digital Industries Software, said that SoC designers working on finer node designs at 7nm and below will greatly benefit from Mentor/Siemens’ acquisition of Avatar.

To appreciate this deal and its irony, however, requires a little background on the checkered history of Avatar.

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