EEsof

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Agilent EEsof EDA
Industry Electronic Design Automation Software
Headquarters Santa Rosa, California,
United States
Area served Worldwide
Products RF & Microwave Design
Design & Simulation of High Speed Digital
Electronic System-Level (ESL) Design
Device Modeling
Website Agilent EEsof

EEsof (pron.: /ˈiːsɒf/ EESOF; electronic engineering software), today known as Agilent EEsof EDA,[1] is a provider of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software for communications product design. EEsof products are used for products such as cellular phones, wireless networks, radar, satellite communications systems and high-speed digital wireline designs. Applications include electronic system level (ESL), high-speed digital, RF-Mixed signal, device modeling, RF and Microwave design for commercial wireless, aerospace, and defense markets.

Contents

History [edit]

EEsof was founded in 1983 by an entrepreneur, Charles J. ("Chuck") Abronson, and a former Compact Software employee, Bill Childs.[2][3][4]

EEsof's first products included high frequency circuit simulators such as Touchstone and Libra. Although the Touchstone simulator itself is obsolete,[5] its eponymous file format lives on. EEsof was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 1993[6] and later spun out as part of Agilent Technologies in 1999 thus becoming Agilent EEsof EDA.[7]

After the merger of HP and EEsof, the EEsof products were combined with the HP simulator, Microwave Design System (MDS). HP's own entry, MDS, had been introduced in 1985. It was developed in-house and comprised a linear circuit simulator with integrated schematic capture and graphical layout with back-annotation, a first for RF EDA software. MDS was offered on UNIX workstations from HP, Sun, and Apollo as well on the PC (also on UNIX). Prior to the introduction of MDS, HP had a marketing relationship with EEsof and sold Touchstone software on HP platforms such as the Series 200 (but not on the PC). The marketing relationship ended after the introduction of HP's MDS product.

The HP and EEsof harmonic balance simulators also had parallel lives before the merger. HP funded an employee Ken Kundert to do a PhD at UC Berkeley. For his thesis he developed Spectre, the first harmonic balance prototype. Some sources argue[who?] that since Berkeley had an open policy to all of its research work, EEsof was able to learn about the project and actually released a product, Libra, before HP was able to commercialise it in MDS. (Libra was a play on the Latin word libra for balance or scales). However, other sources say that Libra was developed completely independently.[8][9] In any case, Kundert left HP to join Cadence Design Systems shortly after receiving his PhD. There he developed Spectre and SpectreRF.

Products [edit]

  • Platforms:
    • Advanced Design System – high frequency and high speed design
    • EMPro (formerly Antenna Modeling Design System) - 3D EM platform[10]
    • GoldenGate (supersedes RF Design Environment) - RFIC/RF mixed signal simulator[11]
    • IC-CAP, Model Builder Program (MBP), Model Quality Assurance (MQA) - Device modeling and validation[12]
    • Genesys - RF and microwave design[13]
    • SystemVue - Electronic system-level design[14]
  • EM solvers:
    • Momentum – 3D planar, frequency domain. Available with the ADS, Genesys, and GoldenGate platforms
    • FEM Element (formerly Electromagnetic Design System) – full 3D, frequency domain. Available with the ADS and EMPro platforms
    • FDTD Element – full 3D, time domain. Available with the EMPro platform

The GoldenGate product was added with the Xpedion acquisition. The SystemVue and Genesys products were added as a result of the acquisition of Eagleware-Elanix in 2005.[15][16] In turn Eagleware-Elanix was a result of the merger of Eagleware and Elanix.[17] Eagleware itself was founded in 1985 by Randy Rhea.[18] The MBP and MQA platforms were added with EEsof's acquisition of Accelicon Technologies.[19]

See also [edit]

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ Agilent EEsof EDA home page
  2. ^ Charles J. Abronson bio at CAP Wireless
  3. ^ History of EEsof at Microwaves 101
  4. ^ History of Compact at Microwaves 101
  5. ^ It was replaced by E8881 ADS Linear Simulator, which was later incorporated into W2200 ADS Core
  6. ^ "Hewlett-Packard to acquire EEsof", Mobile Phone News, Sept 13, 1993
  7. ^ Agilent EEsof EDA home page
  8. ^ Russ Henke. "Agilent EEsof EDA – Part I". EDAcafe.com. 
  9. ^ Russ Henke. "Agilent EEsof EDA – Part II". EDAcafe.com. 
  10. ^ Agilent EEsof EDA EMPro page
  11. ^ Agilent EEsof EDA Goldengate page
  12. ^ Agilent EEsof EDA IC-CAP page
  13. ^ Agilent EEsof Genesys page
  14. ^ Agilent EEsof EDA SystemVue page
  15. ^ "Agilent Technologies completes acquisition of Eagleware-Elanix"
  16. ^ "Microwave Journal Speaks with Todd Cutler, Senior Manager, Agilent EEsof EDA"
  17. ^ "Interview with Todd Cutler, CEO Eagleware-Elanix," by Jack Horgan, EDA Cafe
  18. ^ History of CIRCUIT BUSTERS, Star, SUPERSTAR, and Eagleware at Microwaves 101
  19. ^ "Agilent Technologies Completes Acquisition of Accelicon Technologies' Solutions for Semiconductor Device Modeling". Agilent Technologies. Feb. 21, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2012. 

External links [edit]

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