Synopsys’s Prime Time has been the standard for Static Timing Analysis practically since its inception. For years, in spite of the best efforts by competitors it has remained the choice of designers around the world. But in the lwst twelve months or so, it has received very serious competition from Magma’s Tekton. This product sports a new architecture and offers accurate results and very good performance, usually better than what Prime Time can do.

Synopsys has tried to work on Prime Time, but unfortunately there is only so much one can do based on an old architecture and algorithm. So, after measuring what could be done with the available resources, Synopsys has acted and just acquired Extreme DA.

Extreme DA is a privately held company headquartered in Santa Clara, California that develops software to improve integrated circuit (IC) design performance, power consumption and manufacturing yields. Accroding to Synopsys, the acquisition extends Synopsys' expertise in static timing analysis and multicore software development by adding technology and engineering talent to accelerate advancements in Synopsys' timing analysis solutions. In addition to having access to technology that can help them address Giga-scale design challenges, customers will benefit from a world-class sales support team. The terms of the acquisition, which closed October 6, have not been disclosed.

Extreme DA is recognized for ushering in the first commercial statistical static timing analysis (SSTA) tool suite, and for later introducing the ability to statistically model on-chip variation without the need for expensive cell library characterization in its GoldTime static timing analysis tool.