Synopsys says it will shelve Monterey's tools

Mike Santarini
(10/11/2004 3:45 PM EDT)

  SAN JOSE, Calif. — In confirming earlier reports of its acquisition of Monterey Design Systems, Synopsys Inc. said it will acquire most of Monterey's assets except customer contracts and will shelve all existing Monterey tools.

"We did not acquire Monterey's customer contracts, and we will not be supporting any of their products or customers," said Yvette Huygen, Synopsys' worldwide public relations manager.

Huygen said the deal is a talent rather than a technology acquisition. It will hire over 45 engineers, of whom 40 are from Monterey's R&D operation in Armenia.

When EE Times disclosed the Monterey acquisition last week, industry sources said Synopsys would integrate Monterey's Calypso floorplanner into Synopsys' implementation flow and shelve its remaining technology. Not so, said Huygen, adding that Synopsys plans to drop all of Monterey's technology. "We are not going to integrate or use Monterey products in our floorplanning technology," said Huygen. "The acquisition doesn't change our design tools roadmap and, in particular, we've established strong momentum behind Jupiter-XT. We will continue executing on existing plans."

Since Synopsys did not acquire Monterey's customer contracts, Huygen added that it will not support Monterey customers. "That's up to Monterey," she said, adding that she did not know the total number of Monterey customers.

Monterey executives were not talking last week. Jacques Benkoski, Monterey's president and CEO, could not be reached for comment. However, the company lists ST Microelectronics, Mobileye, Sunext Design and Zoran Micro as recent customer successes.

Huygen said Synopsys did gain patents in the acquisition, but will not use them in its patent litigation against Magma Design Automation. "The patents have nothing to do with the suit against Magma," said Huygen.