Altair announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of Metrics Design Automation Inc. (Metrics), a Canadian company with a game changing simulation as a service (SaaS) business model for semiconductor electronic functional simulation and design verification. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions.
The Metrics digital simulator, DSim, when combined with Altair’s Silicon Debug Tools, will deliver a world-class, advanced simulation environment with superior simulation and debug capabilities in the EDA and semiconductor space. The cloud-based business model has the potential to transform the semiconductor space by making high caliber EDA design tools much more affordable and accessible for companies looking to aggressively scale out simulations to accelerate design cycles.
Today, integrated circuit (IC) design verification has high licensing costs and may require hundreds and sometimes thousands of seats to run a single chip simulation. Additionally, these tools run on desktop machines, and are not typically cloud-native or cloud-enabled. The Altair and Metrics solution delivers the flexibility to run as a desktop app, on your own servers, or in the cloud and can run very large regressions with the customer paying only for what they use. It supports System Verilog and VHDL RTL for digital circuits targeting application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Because of this, simulations can be run concurrently and at scale, removing massive amounts of time and costs from the traditional design cycle.
“By combining our best-in-class software with Metrics’ cloud-based simulation as a service, we are excited to bring this groundbreaking technology to our EDA and semiconductor customers,” said James R. Scapa, founder and chief executive officer, Altair. “Altair is unique in our ability to merge simulation with industry-leading workload and workflow optimization technology, serving as a true partner for companies embracing innovative tools and resource delivery models in this highly specialized and high-stakes industry. Customers now have a choice in design verification.”
DSim will be available through Altair One, Altair’s cloud innovation gateway, where it will also be available for desktop download. Whether in the cloud, on your own servers, or on the desktop, DSim is fully featured and optimized for speed, capacity and accuracy, providing semiconductor, automotive, aerospace and defense customers with Altair’s leading digital simulation, visualization, and circuit debug technology, so they can quickly track down design problems and move the most complex devices into production earlier and with a higher degree of confidence.
“We are proud to be first-to-market with our game-changing design verification product and business model for the semiconductor industry,” said Joe Costello, executive chairman, Metrics. “Joining Altair will allow us to grow and provide an alternative option – whether on desktop, on your own servers, or in the cloud – to engineers looking for a flexible, modern, accurate, and fast design verification solution that is truly scalable.”
Metrics is led by Joe Costello, who is considered one of the founders of the modern EDA industry when he became President of Cadence Design Systems and drove annual revenues to over $1B—the first EDA company to achieve that milestone. In 2004, he was awarded the Phil Kaufman Award by the Electronic System Design Alliance in recognition of his business contributions that helped grow the EDA industry.
