Synopsys on Tuesday announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Ansys in a deal valued at $35 billion. Synopsys specializes primarily on electronic design automation (EDA) tools and hardware intellectual property (IP) development, whereas Ansys develops electronics design analysis, and simulation tools, so the deal will create a chip design software powerhouse with expertise in different fields.
Chip development is getting harder these days as evolution of process technologies slows down whereas transistor count goes up. To achieve the best power, performance, and area (PPA) results, chip designers nowadays have to work closely with foundries to optimize their design and process technology, an approach called design-technology co-optimization (DTCO). Going forward, chip designer will have to build multi-chiplet solutions to better address demanding applications, go beyond DTCO and optimize their solutions on the system level, an approach known as system technology co-optimization (STCO).
