OpenAccess and Synopsys Working Together

The manufacturer says . . .

Murray Disman says . . .

OpenAccess Coalition and Synopsys Work to Align Open-Standard Data-Access Interfaces; Golden Gate Working Group Embarks on Building Bridge Between OpenAccess and Milkyway AUSTIN, Texas and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Feb. 10, 2003--The OpenAccess Coalition (OAC), a group of top electronics and electronic design automation (EDA) companies focused on creating a standard for true interoperability between integrated-circuit (IC) design tools, and Synopsys Inc., a world leader in IC design software, announced that they are working together in the Golden Gate Working Group to build a bridge between OpenAccess and Synopsys' Milkyway environment. The Golden Gate Working Group was formed in late 2002 to bridge between OpenAccess and the open Synopsys Milkyway environment for the shared benefit of the entire industry. The Working Group is comprised of representatives from Si2, user companies including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, LSI Logic, Motorola, Philips Semiconductors, and STMicroelectronics, and EDA companies including Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys. OAC and Synopsys' joint goals are to define and create the bridging technology to provide interoperable flows between OpenAccess and Milkyway-based tools and, over time, to pragmatically align the application programming interfaces (APIs), creating a smooth data transfer between IC design tools. "The OpenAccess Coalition is committed to creating a full flow for customers using OpenAccess, and we are very pleased to be working with Synopsys and other companies to achieve this goal," said Scott Peterson, director of Platform Tools and Methodologies, LSI Logic and chairman of the OpenAccess Coalition. "The OpenAccess Coalition applauds Synopsys' decision to work within the Golden Gate Working Group to bridge between Milkyway and OpenAccess." "Synopsys is committed to providing interoperable flows for EDA customers. Providing API translators is the right first step toward realizing the shared vision of aligned APIs for the EDA industry," said Rich Goldman, vice president of Strategic Market Development, Synopsys. "We will actively participate alongside our customers to help make this a reality." Golden Gate Working Group Comments According to Michael Sanie, group director of Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives at Cadence, "As a member of the OpenAccess Coalition, Cadence welcomes participation by Synopsys in the working group to help develop an interface between Milkyway and OpenAccess. Forging interfaces between OpenAccess and other industry databases is a step in the right direction toward an open industry standard for IC design." "Our customers tell us that a design flow based on a complete set of tools operating, and ultimately interoperating, on one API is essential," said Dale Hoffman, director of EDA Alliances for the IBM Microelectronics Division. "We believe that the best way to achieve this kind of environment is through consensus around industry-standard open database(s) and APIs." "At STMicroelectronics, we joined the Golden Gate Working Group to facilitate the migration to the OpenAccess design database API standard of all the key EDA tools in our 90 nm design flow," said Philippe Magarshack, Central R&D Group vice president for Design Automation, STMicroelectronics. "An important step in that process is to build an interface with the Synopsys Milkyway environment. We trust that Synopsys and OpenAccess will work together and find a technically sensible solution that inherits the best of both worlds. This will allow the major EDA solutions on the market to interoperate, which is mandatory to build a full nanometer-level design flow." "We applaud the decision by Synopsys to make their Milkyway environment more open and to work with the OpenAccess Coalition on the Golden Gate Working Group," said Terry Blanchard, director of EDA, Hewlett-Packard. "An active participation by Synopsys on the working group will help to ensure a successful bridge between OpenAccess and Milkyway with a minimal amount of effort." "Our customers have made the choice in tool flows, including necessary value-added in-house tools, an urgent priority," said Steve Schulz, president and CEO, Si2. "Si2's vision is for an open environment where all EDA tools embrace a common API interface using OpenAccess. We are encouraged that Synopsys has decided to join the Golden Gate Working Group, which includes Cadence and key customers, to work with us toward the vision of a high-performance, interoperable design environment for all EDA customers."

It is gratifying to see what an organized group of major EDA users, namely Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, LSI Logic, Motorola, Philips Semiconductors, and STMicroelectronics, can accomplish. In this instance, concerted pressure by major customers convinced a vendor to move in the desired direction. We should not expect altruism from the EDA vendors. They are in business with the goal of making their companies prosper. Most of the publicity generated by a vendor is issued under an altruistic cloak. Statements such as this new feature will provide major benefits for the design engineer pepper every press release. While the new features may truly provide benefits, the reasons they are included are to improve the competitive position of the vendor. This is the way the business world operates, and it is well understood by all. Getting a vendor to adopt an approach that actually weakens its competitive position, but one that aids the designer by simplifying the use of another vendor's products, is somewhat unusual. I'm sure that Synopsys or Cadence would love to provide all of the tools that a device designer uses. That is an unlikely scenario because of the complexity of the problems being solved, user preferences, and historical factors. Having a quasi-common API to the OpenAccess and Milkyway databases is a user-driven solution to the tool-integration problem. Synopsys has already announced that it has opened its Milkyway database and that a number of EDA companies have joined its Milkyway Access Program (MAP-in). According to Synopsys, MAP-in gives EDA vendors the ability to link their tools into the widely used Milkyway design database through open application programming interfaces (APIs). The most recent additions to MAP-in include Circuit Semantics, Library Technologies, Prolific, and Silicon Canvas. At about the same time as this announcement, the OpenAccess Coalition described its progress and some of the results obtained with the new database at its second OpenAccess conference. There is still a substantial amount of work required on the database. For example, the Coalition is providing translators for LEF, DEF, and GDSII. However, it is seeking industry contributions for translators from Verilog netlists, Spice, and SPEF to OpenAccess and from OpenAccess to these formats.

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