( ESNUG 331 Item 2 ) --------------------------------------------- [10/7/99]
Subject: ( ESNUG 330 #1 ) Synopsys Sales Just *Now* Likes Small Customers
> Working for a small company, it was frustratingly difficult to get any
> quote at all from Synopsys, whereas Ambit were more than happy to take
> my business.
>
> - Dr. Paul Marriott
> Marriott Design Services Montreal, Canada
From: Jeff Lancaster <jlancast@phobos.com>
Hi John,
First let me express my pleasant surprise that ESNUG dares to publish frank
comments about the recent Synopsys price hikes and its competition with
the Ambit BuildGates tool.
I must admit that I, too, as Dr. Marriott's story goes, had a rough time
with my local Synopsys sales office and Synopsys' licensing practices a few
years ago. (I'm talking about the Denver Synopsys office.) I won't go into
specifics because it all seemed to have changed in the last 12 to 18 months.
They have been very cooperative and helpful to us. But this love/hate thing
continues to go on as we scrambled last month to take advantage of the old
pricing structure before it expired September 1.
It seems to me that Synopsys thought it was safe to hike their prices
knowing that BuildGates was safely in the clutches of Cadence. And maybe
Formality is safe too with Chrysalis tucked in the Avanti crowd.
I like Design Compiler because I trust it to make good silicon and I get
good support. I get the same results from Cadence and Avanti with the tools
that they sell. I applaud Cadence for daring to compete with Synopsys, even
if their 80% price reduction was a shameless attempt to capture a piece of
the market. Some day the only difference among them will be price, I hope.
- Jeff Lancaster
Phobos Corp. Salt Lake City, Utah
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