Cadence buys Tensilica for $380M
Cadence announced Monday that it will acquire Tensilica in a bid to accelerate delivery of its IP roadmap.
The buyout is another sign of how customers are shifting to compact designs that incorporate various functions in one chip, due to space and power consumption concerns, rather than utilising software from EDA firms to develop all the circuitry that goes into their products.
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Cadence Design Systems announced Monday that it intends to acquire Tensilica for approximately $380 million in a bid to accelerate delivery of its IP roadmap.
The purchase of Tensilica, which specialises in configurable dataplane processing units (DPUs) that are optimised for embedded data and signal processing targeted at mobile wireless, network infrastructure, auto infotainment and home applications, is the latest example of the shift in the industry in the way semiconductors are conceived and built.
Customers traditionally would utilise software from EDA firms like Cadence to develop all the circuitry that goes into their products.
As space and power consumption become primary concerns, customers now prefer compact designs that incorporate various functions in one chip.
Cadence CEO and President Lip-Bu Tan said during the webcast announcing the proposed acquisition that roughly two billion Tensilica processors have been incorporated by some 200 licensees.
Tan emphasized that his company aims to aid SoC designers by offering Tensilica’s customised DPUs to lessen time-to-market.
Back in July, Cadence reported that both PC shipments and infrastructure equipment sales have dropped and that a shortage of 28nm foundry capacity has withdrawn some customer sales.
Despite these macroeconomic challenges, Tan said his company is confident that design activity will grow on a steady pace.
(See Cadence sees momentum gain for design activity.)
Cadence purchased signal and power integrity technology provider Sigrity last year for $80 million in a bid to enable system and semiconductor companies to deliver high-performance devices employing gigabit interface protocols such as DDR and PCIe. (See Cadence buys signal analysis provider.)
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