Methodics Acquires Missing Link Tools To Expand Platform for Advanced SoC Design and IP Quality Management Solutions

Popular EVOLVE™ regression testing, debug and release management environment for digital design complements DM leader’s custom chip ProjectIC™ platform

San Francisco, Calif. – May 31, 2012 – Methodics, Inc., the leading provider of integrated solutions used in managing design data and semiconductor intellectual property (IP) for complex IC design, today announced it has acquired Missing Link Tools, LLC. Missing Link Tools (MLT) provides a frontend tool-suite to manage digital design and verification. These tools plug into the ProjectIC™ design data management system from Methodics. The resulting combination offers a complete solution for the task of managing analog and digital IP and assembling SoC designs. Terms of the acquisition were not announced. Missing Link Tools’ founders will join Methodics effective immediately.

Missing Link Tools’ EVOLVE™ solution has gained popularity with design and verification teams for its ability to manage the huge volumes of digital design data. MLT’s customers have seen savings of multiple months on their schedules and ROI’s in excess of 15X compared to manual approaches typically used for the tasks the tools automate. EVOLVE provides an Agile framework for build, test, and regressions, all in a central database. Teams can effortlessly recreate failures, triage large regressions, and swap design workspaces. The semiconductor-specific continuous integration release server enables seamless cross-geography collaboration. With cross-vendor coverage support and collection, EVOLVE offers a way to report and manage coverage across testbenches, across time and across design snapshots.

“The addition of Missing Link Tools’ technology, which is used by some very well-known companies, greatly extends our vision for providing a unified platform for managing SoC design. This simplifies a complex effort and ensures IP quality throughout the entire IC design process,” said Simon Butler, founder and president of Methodics. “The combination of Methodics’ ProjectIC and VersIC™ products, along with MLT’s EVOLVE tool gives Methodics the industry’s only complete solution for analog and digital SoC development. VersIC offers the best performing analog design DM methodology. EVOLVE manages the digital flow with centralized release and test management. ProjectIC unifies the complete flow and integrates with all modern version control tools. Together, the tools cover the entire IC project providing a comprehensive IP development cockpit. It means chips tape out on time, and gives full product lifecycle visibility to the management team.“

“This is a true combination of strengths and a synergistic approach to addressing the major challenges involved with how complex IC projects are managed,” said Eric Peers, founder and president of Missing Link Tools. “With EVOLVE, we enable our customers to tape out on time. We’ve been looking for a partner on the analog side for a long time. When we saw how VersIC seamlessly manages analog design data we knew we had found the right fit. By integrating into the Methodics toolchain, handoffs all the way from architecture to final LVS/DRC can now be managed in one central location. Every step is tested, qualified, and tracked. Methodics has dashboarding, reporting, configuration management and IP portfolio management with ProjectIC. Complicated dependencies, bug tracking, release management for distributed teams – it’s all handled seamlessly and easily. Methodics has done a great job with this tool flow and now it’s getting even better with EVOLVE.“

About Methodics, Inc.

Methodics, Inc. is a leading provider of design data management (DM) tools that improve the efficiency and collaboration of integrated circuit (IC) design. Its ProjectIC™ system is the first integrated platform for managing SoC realization, reducing the time, complexity and costs involved in IP-based design approaches. Its VersIC™ DM tools integrate industry-standard software configuration management (SCM) tools, such as the Perforce® and Subversion® version control systems into the hardware design environmentto provide a more efficient global collaboration experience. The privately held company has offices in the USA, Europe and Asia. For further information, visit www.methodics.com.

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