Accellera and The Spirit Consortium have decided to merge, and no shotgun was in sight. How cool is that? This event is very positive for both the EDA and the semiconductor industry.

It is rare that in an industry like EDA, where personalities are more important than group accomplishments, two successful organizations can agree that together they will count more than the sum of the parts. As one of the individuals that started Accellera as a fusion (we did not exchange rings) of two organizations (VHDL International and OVI) who competed at times bitterly, I am overwhelmed by the wisdom of those individuals that have engineered this union.

Who says that M&A activity in the Valley is lagging? Here is a merger that not only will strengthen the parties involved, but will also give more vigor to the IEEE Standards Organization, who can now count on a greater number of knowledgeable professionals to develop those industry standards so valuable to the IEEE in codifying worldwide standards.

The two organizations have decided that the combined legal entity will be called Accellera (a small victory for a certain Italian/American who coined the name nine years ago) while maintaining The Spirit Consortium brand for the work dedicated to IP standardization. Accellera, the imperative of the Italian verb "accellerare" meaning to speed up, is now bound to live even closer to its name by providing a more eclectic forum for ideas and development, and a faster, proven, road to standardization.

Of course members of the two organizations will also gain: less duplication of fees, less meetings to attend, less ambiguity when trying to decide who should work on what. EDA companies, semiconductor companies (fabless or otherwise), systems companies are all represented in the combined organization. The most important thing is that the new membership widens the official interests of the new consortium to cover practically all aspects of the design flow, from system design to silicon verification. I raise my glass of Prosecco and shout "in bocca al lupo!"