Electronic design automation software house Synopsys Inc has agreed to acquire Palo Alto, California-based Systems Science Inc, a privately held developer of electronic design, verification and testing tools, for $26m in cash. Synopsys is building up its verification products as the chip design process moves towards new levels of complexity. It says the verification process already counts for more than half of the design cycle. Systems Science brings with it the Vera testbench automation system. Last year Synposys acquired verification technology from its $500m acquisition of Viewlogic Systems Inc (CI No 3,270), and from its earlier acquisition of Epic Design Technology Inc (CI No 3,080). The company also announced that it had hired Edmund Cheng, the founder of Anagram Inc (now part of Avant! Corp) and Silicon Compilers Inc (now a part of Mentor Graphics Corp) to head up its Epic research and development efforts. On Thursday, Synopsys reported third quarter revenues up 10% from the same quarter last year to $179.6m and profits of $34.7m. For the nine months, revenues were $523.9m, up 11% from the same period last year, and $53.8m profits, including acquisition charges.
