Earlier in 2010, Synopsys had said in separate press releases that it had bought CoWare Incorporated, the ESL design software vendor, and Vast Systems Technology Corporation, the virtual system prototyping technology provider.

In 2009, Gemini Design Automation had announced production availability of GSim, its analog and mixed signal SPICE simulator.

Gemini, claiming breakthroughs in speed as also 100% SPICE accuracy, said that GSim is the result of a 3-pronged strategy – improvements to fundamental core SPICE algorithms, parallel computation techniques, and multi-threading of both the model evaluation and matrix solving components of the simulator. The result, according to Gemini Design Automation, is a simulator which is suited to large designs with high parasitic counts.

The GSim, which has been designed to be used and operated just like Spectre, is integrated within standard EDA tool flows such as Cadence’s ADE environment, but is sold through a flexible licensing model, which lets customers pay for only the performance they require at any given point, Gemini Design Automation explained in a statement.

Gemini Design Automation was set up in 2005 by a team having extensive experience in the EDA industry, especially at Synopsys and Cadence Design Systems.