MIPS chief sees no threat from ARM-Artisan tie-up

Brian Fuller
(08/26/2004 4:00 PM EDT)

SAN FRANCISCO — ARM Ltd.'s nearly $1 billion acquisition of library vendor Artisan Components doesn't pose a threat to companies such as MIPS Technologies Inc. who rely to some degree on Artisan libraries, MIPS' chief executive said Thursday (Aug. 26).

John Bourgoin, in an interview with EE Times, said he didn't think that Artisan would begin, in effect, to compete with its customers in its new relationship with ARM announced Monday. MIPS and ARM are both RISC-core vendors who compete in many markets.

"Virage (Logic) is a very, very good competitor. Other elements that Artisan supplies are available elsewhere," he said. "If they (Artisan) attempt to apply leverage in the face of a counter market force, they'll just lose the business."

The $913 million deal is seen as a way for ARM to expand into applications areas, such as consumer, outside its well entrenched position in wireless communications. Some experts also see the deal as a down payment of sorts to ensure the evolution of ARM cores goes smoothly thanks to Artisan modeling expertise as process nodes move toward 65 nm.

Bourgoin, however, argued that while physical and logical design teams can benefit from closer cooperation, there's little need to bring it in-house in this fashion.

"The kinds of things you do in the logical design is to a degree technologically dependent [on physical design], but those things are not difficult to know and they tend to come from foundries rather than companies like Artisan and Virage," he said.

"That's not to say there's no synergy between the two organizations, but does one company need to buy the other?" Bourgoin asked.

Bourgoin also said he doesn't think there's a fundamental change below the 130-nm design node that will necessitate similar mergers in the future.

"There was [change] from quarter-micron to 130, and that was the effects of interconnect and crosstalk associated with" it, he said. "Below 130, that change has pretty much occurred. It's a matter of how much you have to deal with it, not whether you have to deal with it."