Mentor, Magma ties raise eyebrows at DATE

Mentor, Magma ties raise eyebrows at DATE
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Heavy joint marketing activity between Mentor Graphics Corp. and Magma Design Automation at the Design Automation and Test (DATE) conference in Munich this week got the attention of Jay Vleeschhouwer, analyst at Merrill Lynch, who commented on the cozy relationship in his Wednesday (March 5) DATE report.

"Each presented in the other's booth, with an emphasis on their having complementary design flow offerings — Magma's physical design optimization and Mentor's physical verification," Vleeschhouwer said. "As a practical matter, Magma's installed base has of course been using Mentor's Calibre, but the joint activity at the show was nevertheless interesting."

Vleeschhouwer said that the co-operation is "understandable" because the two companies compete with the physical design implementation and optimization offerings from both Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys. Still, he expressed hope that Mentor will clarify the relationship in its March 12 analyst meeting.

The complimentary nature of Mentor and Magma offerings has been noted before. In an Industry Gadfly column at EEdesign, John Cooley, moderator of the E-Mail Synopsys Users Group, noted that Mentor has good tools on either end of the IC design flow but a "doughnut hole" in the middle — synthesis, placement and routing. "I think it's only a matter of time and price before Mentor buys Magma or Monterey," Cooley concluded.