NEC Corp and Digital Equipment Corp Japan announced last week that they have signed an agreement for joint marketing of computer-aided design software for application-specific integrated circuit design. The effective period of the agreement is one year, and it allows NEC and DEC to sell NEC’s OpenCAD and DEC’s Powerframe. OpenCAD is a design and development tool for designing parts out of NEC’s IC series of ASICs. It is in effect a framework for use with other companies’ tools, which include software from Peerlogic Inc and Cadence Design Systems Inc, as well as DEC’s Powerframe framework software. OpenCAD runs on NEC’s 4800 EWS workstation and on Sparcstations. The marketing agreement is the companies’ effort to expand co-operation for further promotion and popularisation of both OpenCAD and Powerframe, but exact details of how the co-operation will work have still to be worked out. The alliance also raises the question of whether DEC is considering NEC as a second source for its Alpha line of RISC microprocessors. NEC is still keen to have a best-selling microprocessor in its armoury, but must be leery after the disappointments caused by MIPS Technologies Inc’s trials and tribulations.
