Synopsys leaves synthesis group

Electronic News, Dec 16, 1996 by Judy Erkanat

Mountain View, Calif.--At last week's EDA Industry Council meeting, Synopsys formally withdrew from all participation in the Open Verilog International (OVI) and VHDL International (VI) synthesis working groups. The decision, following the company's second synthesis patent award, was attributed to legal and ethical reasons combined with confusion in the council's standardization efforts.

Coincidentally, location rotation put the monthly meeting of the OVI/VI groups working on the synthesis standards at Synopsys' headquarters here last week.

"Karen Bartleson, standards program manager at Synopsys, and Bob Baden, a technical representative, came in and announced a second patent for its synthesis technology and Synopsys' withdrawal from all technical groups," said Victor Berman of Cadence Design Systems, co-chair of the synthesis working groups. "They explained that if they participated, it would be unethical and illegal, and that if the patents were infringed, Synopsys would be liable. Actually, if they participated, it would help to keep us out of the patents. I felt no work we were doing would infringe on Synopsys' patents, especially with their input. I think Synopsys' legal advisor told it to withdraw." No Synopsys representative will chair or sit on the committees, as well.

"We are still part of OVI and VI and the Industry Council, as well as a strong supporter of standards, but we want to retain our proprietary IP," referring to intellectual property, said Ms. Bartleson. "There are legal and ethical reasons why companies in general cannot participate in standardization efforts that could potentially encroach on a company's intellectual property. In its current state, it is unclear what the scope of the standard will be, so we will step back and take a conservative view until things aren't so wide open."

The Industry Council, said Mr. Berman, decided to approach standards through language. "This would give the industry an alternative, because Synopsys would not offer any," he said. "Mentor (Graphics) has a tool, ALX, for front-end synthesis checking which it will definitely provide to us, but this does not address the language point of view. The group feels what Synopsys donated is a bare-bones syntax, not really addressing what is at the heart of synthesized designs. The group feels Synopsys' donation was not sufficient to accomplish the council's goals... It is ludicrous to say these two patents are Synopsys' entire core competency. The entire growth of the company cannot be based solely on this technology. The patents are not on new, earthshaking products. Even in the early 1980s, this was known technology."

Synopsys, on the other hand, felt it had lived up to its promises to the council.

"Last year, Synopsys agreed to support an RTL subset standard and committed to donate its de facto standard through the Industry Council," explained Ms. Bartleson. "In September and October, descriptions of Synopsys' RTL language subset were contributed to the synthesis standards efforts. Very recently, Synopsys received two patents on its synthesis technology, originally filed for in 1990. We immediately disclosed this to the Industry Council, and, because of the grey area between the working groups' focus and Synopsys' patented IP, we are withdrawing from the working groups of the OVI and VI."

Synopsys said there were various reactions from the council. "They are disappointed we won't be releasing our core competency into the public domain," Ms. Bartleson said. "But we never promised we would release our IP. We needed to remove ourselves from this confused effort. The VSI Alliance has the same problem on a much larger scale. We feel we are being straightforward and ethical."

But, said other council members, the standards effort will continue.

"We will pursue what we have always intended to, a synergy subset based on Cadence synthesis," said Vassilios Gerousis of Motorola, technical chairman of the OVI committees. "We will now be unable to make Synopsys' synthesis, the de facto standard, compatible with the standard. But the standard from day one has always been based on Cadence's donation to OVI. We are unhappy with Synopsys' decision. I guess they are protecting their business. We are putting into place a framework for RTL to address design constraints and interoperability so new tools can interoperate with a standard RTL language, pragmas, etc. We are not out to create a competitive synthesis. This standard is for new tools in the industry, like cycle-based simulators and emulators, to enable use of the RTL subset for design reuse and interoperability. It is a strange situation and I don't know what to expect from Synopsys next."