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** Silicon Design Systems, Inc. has named Alok Mehrotra as Vice President of Sales. Prior to joining the company, Mehrotra was Director of Sales at Magma Design Automation, where he established and managed sales operations for India, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. Previously, he served as Director of Business Development at Aristo Technology, and held marketing management positions at Cadence and Ikos, and IC design positions at Synopsys and Xilinx. Mehrotra has 3 U.S. patents and BSEE from the Manipal Institute of Technology in India, an MS from SUNY Stony Brook, New York, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

** Silicon Dimensions, Inc. announced that Lorne Cooper has been named to its Board of Directors. Cooper has 20+ years of software industry management and was recently named president of AccuRev Inc. Prior to AccuRev, Cooper was President at PeerDirect and NuSphere Corp. Both companies are divisions of Progress Software. Cooper's EDA experience includes the founding of Sente, Inc., which was acquired and became part of Sequence Design. Before founding Sente, he was with Viewlogic Systems for nine years. Cooper has a BSEE from the MIT.

** Silicon Dimensions also announced the appointment of Craig Robbins as vice president for sales. Previously he was Vice President of Sales at Hier Design, acquired last year by Xilinx. Prior to Hier, Robbins was the vice president of sales of Silicon Perspective, and held executive management sales positions at Cadence Design Systems, Redwood Design Automation and Gateway Design Automation. Robbins has a BS in marketing and an MBA from U.C. Berkeley.

** Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) announced the appointment of Hideya Yamaguchi as Senior Vice President of its System LSI Group. He joins TAEC with 23+ years involvement in overseas market activity, including time spent in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Yamaguchi replaces Ichiro Hirata, who returned to Japan to continue his tenure at Toshiba Corp. (Toshiba).

Yamaguchi has been with Toshiba Corp. since 1982. Most recently he was senior manager and head of the Americas Group. Before that, he was the Vice President responsible for overseeing pan-European sales and marketing of semiconductor products. He has a BS in Economics from Keio University in Japan and an MBA from Claremont Graduate School.

** VaST Systems Technology Corp. announced that Robert Bedichek has been named Vice President of Engineering. Bedichek has 20+ years of software, hardware and architectural design experience. Prior to joining VaST Systems, he was an Advanced Micro Devices Fellow and head of the SimNow platform simulator group. Previously he was with Transmeta Corp. as Director of Software Products and with Intel Corp. as computer architect and senior software engineer. Bedichek has a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington, and a Masters and BA in Computer Science from Cornell University

** Xoomsys Inc. announced that it has appointed two new executives: Anthony Luk is now Vice President of Engineering; and John Yelinek is now Vice President of Worldwide Sales.

Anthony Luk will lead the engineering team. Before joining Xoomsys, he was Vice President of Engineering at Barcelona Design, and before that was Vice President of the infrastructure technology product line at Cadence Design Systems. He has also held engineering management positions at Cascade Design Automation and Seattle Silicon.

John Yelinek will be responsible for building a worldwide sales team. Formerly he was Vice President of Worldwide sales at Nassda, which was recently acquired by Synopsys. Previously, he was Vice President of Sales for the Epic Technology Group at Synopsys. Yelinek had been Vice President for Domestic Sales for Epic Design Technology before its acquisition by Synopsys. He also held sales management positions at ECAD, one of the companies that merged to become Cadence.

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** Mentor Graphics Corp. announced the acquisition of Volcano Communications Technologies AB (VCT), which the companies say includes Volcano's automotive networking series. The series includes network design tools, embedded software and test and validation tools for all major automotive networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Per the Press Release: "The acquisition provides a logical extension of Mentor’s growing presence in the automotive industry by broadening the company’s portfolio of tools available for the design of automotive electrical and electronic systems … VCT provides the automotive industry with comprehensive networking and data communication solutions that support the user in the development of in-vehicle networking systems. VCT is a premium member of AUTOSAR, actively participating in the development of an open network communication standard for the automotive industry. VCT customers include AUDI, BMW, Daimler Chrysler, Volkswagen, Volvo, Ford, Fiat, PSA, Bosch, Delphi, Magneti Marelli, Siemens VDO and Visteon."

Antal Rajnak, VCT Founder, Vice Chairman of the Board, and CTO/Vice President for R&D, is quoted: "We are excited that, by joining Mentor Graphics, we will be expanding into the global automotive marketplace while combining our strong technologies into Mentor’s automotive design flow."

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** The Petrov Group announced publication of a white paper titled "The Big Picture of the HW/SW Co-Design Landscape" is available on request from the company.

Boris Petrov, Managing Partner of the Petrov Group, is quoted: "Embedded computing and HW/SW co-designs are relatively young engineering disciplines. Embedded computing differs distinctly from its non-embedded legacy counterpart, data processing. A Grand Canyon like evolutionary discontinuity separates these two computing fields, effectively requiring the 'reinvention' of computing technologies and the supporting industry infrastructure in the field of embedded computing."

"The mission of the hardware/software co-design approach is to meet system-level objectives by exploiting the trade-offs between hardware and software in an embedded system through their concurrent design. The research and industry communities have dissected this essence of HW/SW co-design into a myriad of variations on the same theme, but the essence remains the same. Embedded computing is required in the mega-markets: telecommunications, wireless, automotive, computer security, consumer electronics, and other nanometer SoC applications. However, traditional EDA tools are driven by non-embedded applications; they are not applicable to embedded computing."

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** Ansoft Corp. announced financial results for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 ended April 30, 2005. Revenue for the fourth quarter totaled $21.7 million, an increase of 22% compared to $17.8 million reported in the previous fiscal year's fourth quarter. On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the fourth quarter was $4.9 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, representing a 49% increase when compared to net income of $3.3 million, or $0.25 per diluted share in the previous fiscal year's fourth quarter. On a GAAP basis, net income for the fourth quarter was $4.7 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $2.8 million, or $0.21 per diluted share in the previous fiscal year's fourth quarter.

Revenue for the fiscal year totaled $67.7 million, compared to $54.7 million reported in the previous fiscal year. On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the fiscal year was $10.4 million, or $0.80 per diluted share, representing a 130% increase when compared to net income of $4.5 million, or $0.34 per diluted share in the previous fiscal year. On a GAAP basis, net income for the fiscal year was $9.4 million, or $0.73 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $2.6 million, or $0.19 per diluted share in the previous fiscal year.

Ansoft President and CEO Nicholas Csendes is quoted: "For the next fiscal year, we anticipate revenue growth of around 15% as well as increasing profitability of around 25%."

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** VaST Systems Technology Corp. (VaST) announced the closing of $12 million in round C funding. The lead investor for the round is Foundation Capital. VaST will use the additional funds to increase research and development and field support resources. With this funding round, Mike Schuh, Foundation Capital general partner, joins VaST’s board of directors. Mohr Davidow Ventures, which led VaST’s B round, and Allen & Buckeridge, which led the A round, also participated in this financing.

Mike Schuh, Foundation Capital General Partner, is quoted: "Foundation was very pleased to be able to lead this C round for VaST. Embedded system design automation is critical and is today a dramatically underserved area. With system on a chip (SoC) functionality rapidly migrating from hardware to embedded software, VaST’s virtual system prototypes in software, which run nearly as fast as the hardware device and are cycle accurate, are providing a huge competitive advantage for their customers. With VaST, users are starting software development coincident with the hardware development and cutting nine to twelve months off their development cycles."

Alain Labat, VaST President and CEO, is also quoted: "This round of funding allows us to suitably augment our world class team. We are delighted to have Foundation Capital as a new investor and Mike Schuh's presence on our board. Mike's experience and expertise will add tremendously to our resource base."

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** Mentor Graphics announced its IP core based on the PCI Express architecture has been selected by the Microprocessor Development and Research Center (MPRC) of Peking University. Per the Press Release: "MPRC serves as China’s primary research center for computer science, technology and microelectronics and it has established a joint laboratory with Mentor Graphics for SoC verification, chip prototyping and hardware-software debugging. This joint laboratory also supports IP applications for chip design, which is why MPRC selected Mentor Graphics’ fully-compliant IP for the PCI Express standard."

Xu Cheng, Director of Microprocessor Research and Development Center of Peking University, is quoted: "We selected Mentor Graphics based on its history and expertise in certified, standards-based IP and its ease of integration for complex SoC designs. PCI Express is an emerging standard and our latest microprocessor design will support applications for networking connectivity."

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** Mark Burton, who has been heavily involved in SystemC – for example, the OSCI Transaction Level Modelling Working Group – has created a new open source SystemC community and initiative called GreenSocs.

The GreenSocs mission is to encourage SystemC to be used by designers. It will do this by engineering SystemC infrastructure to complement the capabilities developed by OSCI and commercial EDA providers, and promote and utilize academic research.

For example, it will coordinate and make available collaboratively developed models, methods and utilities, prioritized by designers needs. The Open Source approach will provide non-differentiating IP in a cost-effective way, while building standards. Initially the focus will be on items such as a high-level bus, configuration and logging infrastructure.

Please note: Mark is planning to have a "Birds-of-a-Feather" (BOF) session at the upcoming DAC 2005 in Anaheim, and would like to encourage all who are interested to sign up at the DAC information desk for this Birds of a Feather session. These are held on the Wednesday evening at DAC before the DAC party.

** Accelerated Technology, a Mentor Graphics division has announced two new persons to the Object Management Group (OMG). The OMG is an international, not-for-profit software consortium that produces and maintains computer-industry specifications for interoperable applications.

As a member of the OMG's Board of Directors, Neil Henderson will help ensure that the high-level design language standards defined by the OMG, such as the Unified Modeling Language (UML), meet the needs of embedded software engineers. Stephen Mellor has been elected to the OMG's Architecture Board, which acts as the technical gateway for all standards issued by the OMG. The appointments demonstrate Accelerated Technology's commitment to promote a range of interoperable design tools from different vendors to help embedded engineers take advantage of high-level software design processes such as executable UML.

** Aprio Technologies Inc. announced the initial list of partners collaborating in the company's Winners Circle Program, which is slated to include EDA vendors, IP providers, equipment manufacturers, silicon foundries, and technology distributors. The first four partners include OEA International, Silicon Canvas, Silicon Navigator and TOOL Corp. Aprio says it created the Winners Circle partner program "to allow additional DFM visionaries to help integrate tools, which are widely used along the DFM flow."

Jerry Tallinger, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at OEA International, Hau-Yung Chen, President at Silicon Canvas, Jake Burma, President at Silicon Navigator, and Hideaki Hontao, President at TOOL Corp. all weigh in via the Press Release to commend the program and confirm their enthusiasm with regards to membership.

Randy Smith, Aprio's Vice President of Marketing, is quoted: "Partner programs have always been important in making new EDA technologies viable for customers who require integration with their existing tools. Because a true DFM flow consists of many elements, some of which the industry hasn't addressed until now, a partner program like Aprio's Winners Circle isn't just important – it is critical. We're pleased that our first Winners Circle partners also recognize the urgency needed to usher in a true DFM solution."

** ESL Now! is a group of 20+ companies representing an array of ESL modeling, verification, software tools generation and synthesis solutions, services and standards who are working jointly to spread awareness of ESL. Companies involved in the ESL Now! campaign include: ACE Associated Compiler Expert, Beach Solutions, Bluespec, Cadence Design Systems, Carbon Design Systems, Celoxica, ChipVision Design Systems, CoFluent Design, CoWare, Doulos, Forte Design Systems, Mentor Graphics, Novas Software, Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI), Poseidon Design Systems, Prosilog, Synfora, Synopsys, Tenison, Tensilica, VaST Systems Technology, and Virtio. The promotional sponsor of ESL Now! is Design & Reuse.

You should know this because, ESL Now! is orchestrating an online survey regarding their current and planned ESL tool usage. The survey results will be compiled and announced after DAC 2005.

The survey can be accessed at www.esl-now.com

The more electronics designers who participate, the more meaningful the results will be. Note that none of the ESL Now! companies will be using the names collected during the survey for marketing purposes. Also, please note that survey respondents will be entered to win one of several Sony PlayStation Portable video game systems. Prizes will be announced on the ESLNow! website and will also be announced in the DAC Pavilion at the end of each day during the conference in Anaheim.

** Nallatech joined several partners from industry, academia and government organizations, in launching the FPGA High Performance Computing Alliance (FHPCA) at an industry conference held in the Dynamic Earth Centre in Edinburgh.

Per the Press Release: "The FHPCA aims to advance the development and adoption of FPGA-based high-performance computing through collaboration on the design and development of world’s most powerful FPGA-based supercomputer using COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) technology. The objectives of this project are to: deliver tools to simplify the design and management of scalable FPGA high-performance computers; provide opportunities for education and training by generating course materials and the provision of six EngD student scholarships; facilitate technology transfer, including assistance with porting conventional supercomputing applications to an FPGA-based supercomputer; and promote research in the application of FPGA-based high-performance computing by making facilities available to visiting academics."

Allan Cantle, CEO of Nallatech, is quoted: "FPGA-based computing systems have been Nallatech’s business for over ten years. We have systems installed in applications as diverse as genomic processing and military radar. Yet for many scientists and engineers, who would love to have access to the computing power that this technology can provide, FPGA computing is either unknown or inaccessible, simply because the tools and techniques to develop these systems are so specialized. FPGA computing is today where conventional microprocessor-based computing was 15 years ago. The potential exists to deliver unprecedented computational capacity, using less power in a smaller space, however to unleash that potential the industry needs to develop the means to give users low risk access to that power."

"Working with the FHPCA will help industry to begin the process of opening up the technology to a wider range of users and hence applications through education, the development of standardized tools and providing a platform for large-scale demonstrations. Nallatech is making a significant investment in the FHPCA both financially and in terms of technology, time and expertise. We expect that through our participation Nallatech and its customers will gain not only from the new knowledge that will be a result of the program, but also from having a wider group of engineers and scientists worldwide, who are familiar with the capabilities of our systems and confident in their ability to use them."

** The Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) announced that five new members are joining the organization, including: ASICS World Services, Atrenta, Celoxica, First Silicon Solutions (FS2) and Jeda Technologies. The organization says these new members represent a wide variety of markets and product offerings, illustrating the industry-wide acceptance and adoption of OCP.

OCP-IP also announced that the Software and Integrated Circuit Promotion Center (CSIP) has joined the organization. Per the Press Release: "CSIP is a public service organization guided and supported by the Chinese government to assist enterprises to solve common problems to accelerate the formation of the software and IC industry chain. CSIP utilizes government finance and technology assets to efficiently link domestic and international resources for improved business expansion. Through the national SIP library CSIP provides many IP services such as: IP search, verification, evaluation, consultation, IP business and other development."

Finally, OCP-IP announced the Shanghai Silicon Intellectual Property Exchange (SSIPEX) has become a member of the organization. The Group also announced the launch of a simplified Chinese language website. This new version of the website allows visitors to access the organization's information and materials in their local language, eliminating translation barriers. OCP-IP member SSIPEX helped with creation of materials for the new website.

Per the Press Release: "SSIPEX was formed in August 2003 through an initiative of the Shanghai Information Commission & Shanghai Technology Commission and was funded with capital of over RMB 30 million as a not-for-profit organization. The Group’s mission is to bring together buyers and sellers of Silicon Intellectual Property (SIP) to help companies maximize their return on R&D investment and deliver IC products to market in timely manner. They also organize and coordinate SIP research & development in China. SSIPEX is positioned to become the headquarters for IP transactions between trading parties as well as helping them complete IP transactions and provide a clear audit trail that protects patent, royalty and other IP-related issues."

Please recall that "OCP-IP members receive free training, support, software tools, and documentation. This infrastructure allows IP and EDA vendors to eliminate the need to internally design, document, train and evolve a proprietary standard and set of support tools. This enables IP and EDA vendors to focus their efforts and resources on the challenges of developing IP that can be quickly integrated and easily verified in a wide variety of SoC designs. As a result, IC design teams can dedicate their critical resources to the design and delivery of products."

** VCX Software, Ltd. announced an agreement with the FSA that the Press Release says "will see the industry organization adopt, evolve, and disseminate the significant body of work contained in the VCX IP Model License Agreements (MLAs) to its membership … The MLAs were developed as a result of a major collaborative effort that VCX championed over the past several years among IP users, IP providers, EDA companies, foundries and IP attorneys. The initiative sought to identify what issues a set of common IP transaction agreements should address, and then, with significant financial support, translated this input into the initial MLA forms and supporting documents, which were used by original IP exchange facility developed by VCX Ltd." Good stuff!