Synopsys ploughs cash into systems-on-a-chip

Synopsys has said it plans to become a driving force behind systems-on-a-chip (SoC) technology by establishing a $40m venture fund. The company hopes to stimulate emerging electronics companies who are developing next-generation computing and consumer electronics applications.

The US company is making a $20m initial financial commitment to the fund, with the additional $20m allocated for follow-on funding.

Bob Dahlberg, vice president, business development at Synopsys, said: "Today, IC companies have the process capability to manufacture a chip with nearly 100 million transistors, yet design engineers have only been able to successfully develop chips that are half that size."

He added that Synopsys aims to close this design productivity gap "so we can reach the next level of chip design".

Early recipients of the venture funding include Synchronicity, a Boston-based supplier of Web-based design groupware for design and project management for semiconductor and SoC companies and The Silicon Group, a Texas-based provider of design solutions for integrated circuits.

The purpose of the fund is to help realise systems on silicon, said Dahlberg. He added that Synopsys will take a minority stake in each company it funds - it has previously made minority investments in a handful of companies including Artisan, Gambit and Chyan Technologies.

"Our charter as a company is to solve this systems-on-a-chip problem, but we realise we can't do it all ourselves," said Dahlberg.

In October, ten companies - including Motorola, Toshiba and Siemens - formed the Virtual Component Exchange alliance, based in Scotland. The alliance aims to facilitate the licensing of semiconductor intellectual property among chipmakers with the purpose of speeding up SoC development.