( ESNUG 528 Item 10 ) ------------------------------------------- [12/13/13]
Subject: New and Rumors on GF, Apple, TSMC, Oasys, Atrenta, ARM, EVE, Apache
HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH: Here's the latest news & rumors I've heard about EDA
and fabs. Feel free to comment/correct/scold anything!
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- SCOOP I: Rumor is almost all of the GlobalFoundries marketing people
have been laid off -- even some old guard Chartered Semi guys have
been cut. Speculation is Ajit Manocha, CEO of GloFlo, is unhappy
with how empty his fabs are since the AMD deal dried up, so he's
going "back to the fundamentals" where GF is now only focused on the
Big 4 companies of chip design -- Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor, and ARM.
This means GF will be ignoring all the remaining lessor EDA and IP
companies. Heck, it's even rumored GF is skipping the next DAC!
  
Why? Because even though Apple is using TSMC to make the 20 nm A8
for 2014, word is Apple will be using Samsung for the 14 nm A9 chip
sets in 2015! The endless patent lawsuits clearly show Apple hates
Samsung. Same can also be said for Qualcomm and Nvidia being unhappy
with TSMC. GF CEO Ajit Manocha wants take advantage of this by
hiring ex-Samsung-SVP-who's-dealt-with-Apple Ana Hunter to woo these
high volume customers into using his GlobalFoundries fabs instead;
and Ajit doesn't want her distracted by small EDA/small IP companies.
- SCOOP II: Unconfirmed rumor is GlobalFoundries Singapore is quietly
converting its five remaining 200 mm fabrication plants into analog
300 nm to compete head-to-head against Texas Instruments in the
analog fab business.
GlobalFoundries NY/Dresden are still trying to get their 20/14 nm
yields up and are eager for some juicy high volume digital customers
like Apple or Qualcomm or Nvidia that Ana will hopefully deliver.
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- SCOOP III: Shhhhhhh! It's SECRET, but multiple sources have told me
that Mentor Graphics just quietly aquired Oasys Design Systems at
near firesale pricing -- but neither company has announced this yet!
Word is the Oasys investors -- Intel and Xilinx -- will get some
diluted MENT shares and the Oasys employees aren't getting much for
their Oasys stock, but MENT's ponying up a good retention fund to
keep them around.
That much, all my sources pretty much agree on.
  
But one source has gone on to reiterate that post-DAC ESNUG 528 #2
rumor that MENT is going to merge Oasys with Calypto (possibly with
Joe Costello as CEO plus Joe's Montana Systems) -- plus -- here's
the new double twist -- this time the source is saying MENT will
add Sierra Olympus-SoC -- plus somehow Forte is going to join in,
too; all as one new mid-range EDA company with Costello as CEO.
Keep in mind this is one source saying this new double twist; but
this one spy has been uncannily accurate before.
[ Editor's Note: A full 4 days after I first published this,
Mentor Graphics announced they acquired Oasys!! - John ]
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- Prices each CEO sold for at EDAC EDA 50th Reunion charity event
lunch with CDNS Lip-Bu Tan : ###### $575
bought by Kathryn Kranen
lunch with SNPS Aart de Geus : ############ $1,200
bought by Roy Jewell
lunch with MENT Wally Rhines : ######################### $2,500
bought by Joe Costello
dinner with ARM Simon Segars : ############## $1,350
bought by Aart de Geus
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- My spies report seeing Atrenta CEO Ajoy Bose inside the Mentor HQ
lobby at Wilsonville, OR -- which has fueled speculation that why
rockstar EDA marketing bigwig Mike Gianfagna recently -- and very
unexpectedly -- left Atrenta for eSilicon. Why stick around if
you're going to be laid off after a MENT-ATRENT merger anyway?
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- FUN QUOTE
"Christ! I wished I had parked $10,000 with her back in
those early days... it'd be $60,500 now!!!!"
- [ An Anon User ] reacting to Kathryn Kranen
saying that "Jasper-DA had grown at a CAGR
of 35% since 2007" at JUG'13 (10/22/13)
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- DAC just announced that it's adding an new DAC IP Track in 2014
and guess who's keynoting it?
  
Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination Technologies and the maker of
MIPS and PowerVR -- and ARM's biggest rival! Wow. Simon Segars'
marketing people at ARM really missed the boat on this one. Ouch!
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- One of my spies reports major shake-ups are coming in the Synopsys
Custom Group. Names like Paul Lo, Anton Domic, Chi-Foon Chan and
John Chilton are being tossed around. Keep an eye on them!
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- Speaking of Synopsys, word is their EVE acquisition is in shambles.
For Cadence Palladium:
"Q3 was a strong quarter for Palladium. Palladium has a
strong position in over 70% of the top semiconductor
companies, and this year, we grew our leading position
with 25 major expansions and 9 new customers."
- Lip-Bu Tan, CDNS CEO (Q3 Earnings 10/23/13)
Rumor is the Nvidia-Palladium deal was for ~$25 M -- the biggest
single customer emulation deal ever made!
For Mentor Veloce II,
"Our emulation bookings more than doubled in the 3rd
quarter and year-to-date are almost triple those in
all of last year."
- Greg Hinckley, MENT President (Q3 Earnings 11/21/13)
and Wally Rhines even discussed possibly raising Veloce II prices
in that very same earnings call!
Whereas Aart de Geus and his CFO discussed "sales volatility in
emulation and prototyping hardware" and even Aart himself ducked a
direct question about the EVE acquistion from the Merrill Lynch
analyst in his recent 12/04/13 SNPS Q4 Earnings Call.
And even worse, I tried to call Lauro Rizzatti, the father of
EVE Zebu, but the SNPS switchboard said he's no longer with SNPS!
He got laid off! I called Lauro's cell:
"I confirm the rumor. I am not at Synopsys anymore, but
I am restricted from making any comment after I signed
the severance offer."
- Lauro Rizzatti of EVE (11/07/13)
I don't know whether its CDNS Palladium or MENT Veloce who's in 1st
place in emulation, but all the indicators I see say SNPS EVE Zebu
appears to be in a very troubled and very distant 3rd place.
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- Looks like 2013 was a kick-ass year for the IC Manage guys. With a
whopping 178% growth, their company just made the Deloitte Fast 500
of 2013 -- which is not bad for a company that started out 12 years
ago as the second letter in ESNUG 383 #11 by Shiv Sikand, the brain
trust of IC Manage. Kudos, Shiv!
  
The other IC Mange kudos goes out to Dean Drako, the company CEO, but
not for his IC Manage work. Last month Barracuda Networks IPO-ed on
the New York Stock Exchange -- and guess who rang the bell that day???
(Click pic to enlarge)
That's Dean Drako in the exact center of the pic. And this is
where John Cooley has to publically correct himself. Last year back
in ESNUG 508 #1, I estimated Dean's net worth to be $500 M. Turns
out 27.5 M CUDA shares at $25.54 each, Dean's personal net worth is
$702.4 M. My bad, but I'm guessing Dean's OK with such errors.
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- FUN QUOTE
"Can you maintain a business after your top customer buys your
technology and the engineering team that developed it?"
- Rick Merritt, EEtimes.com (10/31/13), on the news
Qualcomm bought out the entire Arteris R&D team
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- Overheard at a recent Silicon Valley house party: what's left of the
Apache R&D staff at Ansys is staying for their final $100 K earnout in
June -- and Andrew Yang is also staying until June for his $10 million
earnout. What remains of Apache in Ansys after June is anyone's guess.
  
Speaking of Apache, news is Solido just scooped up Keith Mueller for
their board of directors. Keith was a key sales executive at Apache,
Silicon Perspectives, and Quickturn. Keith has been CEO of Tuscany
for the last 4 years -- which was acquired by Dassault this year.
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- FUN QUOTE
"Those negative rivals' quotes about Chip-Ping were out of line.
Anirudh's responsibility at Cadence continues to expand -- first
PVS, then STA, and now IR-drop and digital implementation.
Chip-Ping is a very sharp guy who knows EDA. Lip-Bu will use
him to get the guidance he needs; and he'll use Anirudh to
reinvigorate his R&D. It's clear that the CDNS board has
decided to run hard at the SNPS core digital franchise."
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ] replying to ESNUG 534 #4
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- Fun news! Remember how grumpy EDA editor Gabe Moretti announced
10 months ago in ESNUG 510 #3 he's retiring? Well, he's baaaaack!
"This is a fundamental legal issue that apparently barrister
John fails to understand. Maybe it is the box of Franzia
white zinfandel John won at the Fifty Years of EDA celebration
that wrote the piece."
- Gabe Moretti, (GabeOnEDA.com 10/28/13), chastizing
Cooley for "Aart's lawyers get trounced in judge's
SNPS vs. ATOP ruling" in ESNUG 528 #7.
Turns out Gabe's a new contributing editor at Chip Design Magazine.
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- I was loading up the banner ads for today's DeepChip email blast
and I noticed that Mentor is now doing HOW TO YouTube videos on
stuff like "How to automate Calibre inside Synopsys IC Compiler"
or "How to cross-probe nets with Calibre inside Virtuoso".
 
What's neat is you do NOT have to register to see these videos!
That is, MENT is NOT harvesting your personal contact data -- so
no salesmen can later call you -- instead, it's purely just to get
Calibre HOW TO technical info directly into user's hands. Neat.
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And again, feel free to comment/correct/scold/question anything you see here
by just emailing me directly. And, yes, you'll be ANONYMOUS!
- John Cooley
DeepChip.com Holliston, MA
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