It is summer, less than thirty days after DAC, and so products news are fewer, yet there are some. But there are other news keeping bloggers busy. Three acquisitions were completed during the week.

Advantest announced that all the conditions for its acquisition of Verigy, including regulatory approval and the approval of Verigy's shareholders, have been met. Advantest has consequently completed its acquisition of all outstanding Verigy ordinary shares for US$15.00 per share in cash. The total acquisition price is approximately US$1.1 billion. Verigy will henceforth be operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Advantest. The integration process will transform the Advantest Group into the largest company in the semiconductor test equipment sector, with annual sales, based on last year's figures, of $1.7 billion, a market share of over 40%, and 4,900 employees in 21 countries worldwide, including R&D centers in Japan, the U.S., and Europe.

LeCroy Corporation has acquired Bogatin Enterprises, a leading provider of training and publications that help engineers transform complex signal integrity problems into practical design solutions. Dr. Eric Bogatin has been setting the standard as a signal integrity expert and distinguished lecturer for more than 20 years, and he will continue to do so in association with LeCroy.

Microsemi Corporation a provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced it has acquired privately-held ASIC Advantage, Inc.. ASIC Advantage is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and manufactures a broad portfolio of high-performance, high-voltage and radiation-hardened mixed-signal integrated circuit (IC) solutions for the aerospace, automotive, communications, industrial and medical markets.

On the EDA products front Mentor and Zuken have made news.

Mentor Graphics announced that the Mentor Verification Academy website, which provides access to information and online training on advanced functional verification technologies, has been expanded to serve the growing information requirements of companies adopting the Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) and the Open Verification Methodology (OVM). The Verification Academy now offers the newly-released UVM/OVM Online Methodology Cookbook, the first comprehensive interactive textbook for verification engineers. Covering both UVM and OVM, the Cookbook provides detailed descriptions, guidelines and coding examples for all aspects of verification IP and testbench design making optimal use of the methodologies.

Zuken has introduced the latest version of its electrical CAD software E³.series. This version focuses on delivering benefits to all electrical design engineers creating electrical systems for everything from aircraft, vehicles, machinery, control systems, printers, etc. The time saving shortcuts and additional new functionality in this release impacts every aspect of electrical design from the large task of planning the topology and functionality of a design, down to the smallest of tasks such as adding connectors and handling signals.

And there are news from Europe as well.

Dassault Systemes announced that its Version 6 platform is being adopted by a growing number of automakers. As the industry is faced with a major transformation and a need to reinvent itself, leading actors such as Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren Mercedes, Renault or Tesla Motors, have already reconsidered their entire PLM strategy. They endorsed Dassault Systèmes' vision and adopted the Version 6 platform to address increasing vehicle complexity, the need for reduced time to market, quicker reaction to consumer desires, globalization, and stringent fuel economy regulation standards.

The European Union's three-year INTERESTED (INTERoperable Embedded Systems Tool chain for Enhanced rapid Design, prototyping and code generation) project, funded under the 7th Framework Program, has come to a successful conclusion with its goals achieved in terms of significantly reducing the cost and improving the quality and time-to-market of safety-critical embedded systems. The European embedded tool vendors who participated in the INTERESTED consortium included AbsInt Angewandte Informatik (Germany), Atego (UK), Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux énergies alternatives (France), Esterel Technologies (France), Evidence (Italy), Symtavision (Germany), Sysgo (Germany) and TTTech Computertechnik (Austria).

Finally from the semiconductors world three notable releases.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. introduced the industry's first USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed USB) solution specifically built to improve the performance of mobile handhelds. The new West Bridge® Benicia™ (CYWB0263) peripheral controller is a highly optimized Data transfer Offload Engine (DtOE) that enables mobile devices to double the IOPS (Input/output Operations Per Second) throughput, stream high-definition video, "sideload" multimedia content at up to 200 MB per second, and reduce battery charging time by 50 percent with increased charging currents up to 900mA. The additional performance afforded by Benicia results in a state-of-the-art user experience.

Microchip Technology Inc. introduced the 60 MIPS 16-bit dsPIC® Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs) and the PIC24 microcontrollers (MCUs). Based upon the next-generation dsPIC DSC/PIC24 MCU core, the 60 MIPS dsPIC33 and PIC24 "E" devices offer larger (536 KB) Flash memory, more RAM (52 KB), greater I/O capability with 144-pin packages, a USB 2.0 OTG interface, and expanded motor-control, graphics, audio, and real-time embedded-control capabilities over the previous-generation dsPIC DSC/PIC24 MCU core. In support of the first nine dsPIC33 and PIC24 "E" devices released today, Microchip launched two USB starter kits and five Plug-In Modules (PIMs) that can be used with its Multimedia Expansion Board, motor-control development kits, and Explorer 16 development platforms. Also available are 30 software libraries and application notes on topics such as speech and audio, encryption/decryption, communications, and motor control. The new devices and comprehensive support package help customers create high-performance designs in less time.

X-FAB Silicon Foundries has enhanced its XH018 0.18 micrometer high-voltage process with a highly reliable new embedded Flash solution. It offers the industry's lowest mask count of 32 mask layers in total for the modular combination of digital, analog and high-voltage features with embedded Flash. The flash module itself requires only two masks. This new solution results in the industry's most cost-effective System-on-chip (SoC) platform. Supporting operating voltages up to 45V, and parallel integration of EEPROM, NVRAM and eFlash storage architectures, the new embedded on-chip memory solution is ideal for high-speed microcontroller, digital power and automotive applications.