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From time to time I receive emails inquiring about tools availability and comparison or about where to find an EDA product for a specific task.
Gary Smith, Founder and Principal Analyst at Gary Smith EDA, has for many years published a chart that groups all EDA vendors according to the application market segment they serve. He has graciously agreed to allow us to publish the charts.
There is a total of three charts: one for ESL and SDA applications, one for CAE applications, and one for CAD-CAM applications.
The History of the EDA Wallcharts
On his website (Gary Smith EDA) Gary writes "The EDA Wallcharts go back to the mid 1980s. Originally called "Who's Who in EDA," they grew from a simple one page spreadsheet to something that had to be put up on the wall to be useful. That was when I started calling them the Wallchart. The name was changed later but now as Gary Smith EDA we have reintroduced the term Wallchart, as that is more descriptive of what it is " a poster you tape on your wall."
The original use — the text continues — was as a guide for setting up design żows, and it still serves that purpose in the Design Community.
When Gary retired from being a Design Methodologist to become an EDA Analyst, he broadened the use of the Wallchart. Now EDA marketing groups used it as a guide for competitive analysis. Strategically it became a great tool for merger and acquisition planning, and from there it moved into the żnancial community as a guide for venture funding or again merger and acquisition planning.
A Quick Guide
The complete set of Wallcharts constitute a reference guide that quickly provides a list of EDA vendors arranged by market segments. To find the chart you are looking for follow the links below:
SDA and ESL
CAE
CAD-CAM
The charts are issued once a year around the Design Automation Conference (DAC). Of course EDA vendors are always working to develop new tools to support the technological development of the electronics industry. And mergers and acquisitions are also common in EDA. For these reasons we will periodically update the information with a section showing the latest available information. If you are aware of required updates please send the information to Gabe Moretti
Latest updates:
- Catalytic has changed its name to Agility Design Solutions. The new link is:
www.agilityds.com
- Celoxica has sold its EDA tools development and service group to Agility Design Solutions
- NEC markets an EMI analysis tool (emitool)
- SoPWorX markets a Signal and Power Integrity tool (SopWorX)
- Physware serves the MCM, Hybrid & Packaging Design market segment
- Rio Design Automation is now part of Magma.
- USG was purchased by Siemens and is now called Siemens PLM Software. As a result Fabmaster products are also sold by Siemens PLM Software.
- Undr PCB Design, notice that PAD Software products are maintained by Mentor Graphics as the result of its purchase of Innoveda some years ago.
- Electronics Workbench is now part of National Instruments.
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