Avant! receives $40M order from Japan firm; $6M Korea pact

Electronic News, June 30, 1997

The Japanese semiconductor company signed a strategic partnership agreement (SPA) for Avant!'s IC design automation (ICDA) tools. The order listed at close to $40 million, Avant! said. The three-year agreement will supply the customer with Aquarius family of place-and-route products, Hercules hierarchical physical design verification, Planet timing-driven floorplanning, Solar timing optimization, Star-HSpice circuit simulation, Star family of simulation and analysis products and Polaris Verilog simulation tools.

The unidentified customer adopted Avant!'s Aquarius place-and-route design software as its standard for deep-submicron (DSM) IC designs.

"Japan has always been an important segment of our revenue growth," said Gerald C. Hsu, chairman, president and CEO of Avant!. "We are pleased that Avant!'s tools have been selected by a world-class major semiconductor company to improve their design process, speed up time-to-market and reduce silicon die size of their advanced ICs. This major order confirms Avant!'s market momentum worldwide, especially during this interesting period and also confirms our customer's confidence in our long-term business stability, future revenue growth, technology directions, product offering and customer support." Mr. Hsu said this was Avant!'s largest order since establishing its distribution joint venture, MainGate Electronics, Inc., in early March. "Joint venture is an innovative business approach to penetrate and expand the Japan market for any U.S.-based EDA company," he explained. "I am very pleased to see the excellent performance of MainGate. This agreement reaffirms the commitment this major Japanese semiconductor company has made to both Avant! and MainGate." MainGate Electronics is a joint venture between Avant! and Japanese investors. Located in Shinyokohama, Kanagawa prefecture, its mission is to provide sales and technical support to Japanese customers, and develop customized, complete products for local markets.

Avant! also signed a major contract agreement for its ICDA tools, with a list price of more than $6 million, with an unidentified Korean semiconductor manufacturer. Another three-year agreement, it covers Aquarius-BV and Aquarius-XO place-and-route, Hercules hierarchical physical design verification, Planet timing-driven floorplanning, Solar timing optimization, Star-HSpice and the Star family of simulation and analysis products.

"This is our first major order since the establishment of this joint venture in Seoul, Korea," I.R. Kim, president of DavanTech Co. Ltd., said. "Joint venture is a unique approach to doing business in Korea for any U.S.-based EDA company. This order validates the confidence this Korean giant has shown in us and we are looking forward to a long-term relationship with them as well as with other key customers in Korea."