Programmable logic turning heads

Electronic News, Nov 19, 2001

ALL IN ALL, IT WAS AN INTERESTING WEEK IN THE PROGRAMMABLE Alogic world. But as is probably truer in programmable logic than in any other semiconductor segment, infighting is rampant. The competition between PLD players (and, it turns out, their EDA partners) managed again to tightly ratchet up the spin and counterspin.

Yes, Altera Corp. and Synopsys Inc. last week signed a broad joint development agreement for building Synopsys tools into the Altera PLD design flow (seepage 10). Since Mentor Graphics Corp.'s HDL division is Altera's major PLD tool supplier and Altera's own Web site said its OEM agreement with Synopsys ended in July, what did this really mean? When all was said and done, maybe not so much. Very late Thursday, an Altera spokesman confirmed that Altera is continuing to work with both Mentor Graphics and Synopsys and that the company's interests lie in tools from all the major vendors. Just another lesson in reading between the lines.