Actel teamed up with Unison to create what it calls an “ultra tiny” Linux-compatible operating system for its SmartFusion chips. Considering Linux has been considered a memory and power hog, this is a major step forward for mixed signal FPGAs.

Two of the Big Three EDA vendors reported earnings for the past quarter. Numbers were relatively flat, but the outlook for the rest of the year is looking up.

Mentor Graphics turned in a respectable $187.9 million in revenue in Q2 compared with $182.6 million in the same period last year. For the quarter the company posted a non-GAAP income of $751,000 vs. $1.5 million in Q2 2009, or a GAAP loss of $14.2 million compared with $21.3 million in 2009. The earnings picture for Mentor is as complicated as its product lines. While the company showed growth in all of its top EDA products, it also grew in adjacent markets such as transportation. For Q3, Mentor expects revenue to grow to about $220 million and GAAP earnings to increase to 8 cents a share. Revenue for the full year is projected at $880 million with GAAP earnings of 20 cents per share.

Synopsys, meanwhile, posted revenue of $336.9 million for its fiscal Q3, which ended on July 31, compared with $345.2 million for the same period in 2009. On a GAAP basis, net income was $39.3 million compared with $47.4 million in 2009. Synopsys’ revenue targets for the next quarter are in the $349 million to $357 million range, which puts the company back on a solid growth curve.

In the IP world, MIPS joined forces with Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp. to help startups with SoC designs in the Asia/Pacific region. A number of MIPS cores will be made available as part of Hong Kong Science’s pilot production programs.

And finally, on the full-chip level, Intel will acquire McAfee for $7.68 billion. The move raises more questions than it answers, particularly about what gets built into future Intel processors and what runs as software on top of it. With Intel increasingly leaning toward heterogeneous cores, this could be the first move by Intel into matching core sizes and power to the application—a move that could save significant power without sacrificing performance.

Tags: Actel, Intel, McAfee, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, Unison

This entry was posted on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 6:34 am and is filed under News Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.