Cadence Picks Up Arm's Artisan Foundation IP Business for an Undisclosed Sum
Acquisition comes as Cadence seeks to integrate itself deeper into the system-on-chip ecosystem.
Cadence Design Systems has announced a desire to be a bigger player in the system-on-chip (SoC) market — and to help has bought Arm's Artisan foundation intellectual property (IP) business for an undisclosed sum.
"During its 25-year history, Arm's Artisan IP has established a strong presence and reputation in the global ecosystem of foundries and SoC partners," claims Cadence's Boyd Phelps. "With the expected addition of the Artisan IP business and team, Cadence will enter the foundation IP market, enabling us to capitalize on new growth opportunities. In doing so, we will gain key technology and expertise to augment our design services and chiplet offerings, enabling us to deliver on our comprehensive IP strategy and provide greater value to our customers. By leveraging the full Cadence stack of IP, libraries, tools, and services, we strive to improve PPA [Power, Performance, Area] while growing this foundation IP business."
Modern system-on-chip parts are typically made up of IP blocks from a range of companies, rather than being a single monolithic design from one manufacturer. Among these blocks are so-called "foundation IP," critical but not-terribly-exciting components common to most designs — standard cell libraries, general-purpose input/output (GPIO), and memory compilers. Arm's Artisan provides exactly this foundation IP, but will now do so under Cadence rather than the Cambridge chipmaker itself.
"We are committed to ensuring that the foundational physical IP needed to deploy Arm technology across all markets continues to be available to the ecosystem," says Arm's Kevork Kechichian of the deal. "The Artisan brand is well established and we believe this technology will continue to play a significant role in the semiconductor industry in the future, and that Cadence is an ideal partner to take it forward."
Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Cadence says the acquisition will take place under an asset purchase agreement and include a concurrent technology license agreement — meaning Arm will still be able to make use of Artisan even as Cadence takes control. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of the year, subject to the usual regulatory approvals. Arm has not stated whether its DesignStart platform will continue to offer free access to an Artisan IP portfolio.
