By Richard Goering, EE Times
May 8, 2003
URL:
http://www.eedesign.com/story/OEG20030508S0042
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Anasift Technology Inc., developer
of "symbolic" optimization tools for analog design,
came to the Design Automation Conference in 1998 with its first
product and then completely disappeared from public view. Anasift
is now reemerging from a five-year R&D hiatus with a new "first
product" that claims to bring unprecedented speed and accuracy
to op amp design.
In 1998, Anasift announced Anascope, a tool that created analog
behavioral models from mathematical formulas. Steve Pollock, who
recently joined Anasift as vice president of marketing, said Anasift
sold a few copies of the tool at that time.
But Pollock said that J.J. Hsu, Anasift founder, president and
chief executive, quickly realized that sales and marketing would
be a "distraction" from his technology development efforts.
So Anasift went back to the drawing boards with a small R&D
team. Meanwhile, the company raised over $6 million in venture
capital funding.
"Now we're ready to go to market," said Pollock, who
is the company's one employee not involved in R&D. "I've
been developing all the marketing materials and putting together
sales and distribution." Anasift is going into beta sites
now with its new product, but is holding off on a formal announcement
until it's ready to ship, Pollock said.
Pollock said the new product will use Anascope as a symbolic
analysis engine, but will go beyond the original 1998 introduction.
The tool will take Spice netlists and create symbolic models.
From there, it will perform optimization and synthesis. Unlike
some analog EDA companies, Anasift optimizes topology, not layout.
But the primary difference is the company's symbolic engine,
which Pollock said provides faster results and better performance
than transistor-level approaches. Essentially, it computes transfer
functions from Spice netlists and creates a complex mathematical
model. It then optimizes the model, instead of working with discrete
transistors.
The first tool will focus on op amps and will handle circuits
of about 100 transistors, Pollock said. Anasift will show it at
next month's Design Automation Conference, but the formal announcement
will follow later, he said.
In Pollock, Anasift has found a seasoned EDA veteran to head
its sales and marketing effort. Pollock was previously vice president
of marketing at Real Intent. He was also director of marketing
for simulation products at Cadence Design Systems, and vice-president
of marketing for Design Acceleration before its acquisition by
Cadence. Pollock joined Anasift in December 2002.
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© 2003 CMP Media, LLC
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