Examples of products utilizing Blue Ocean Strategies include Nintendo’s Wii, Apple’s Ipod and Cirque du Soleil.

The top articles over the last two weeks as determined by the number of readers were:

Fending off Cadence, Mentor tries again for British company Portland Business Journal reports that even as it decided to reject a $1.6 billion offer from rival Cadence Design Systems Inc., the board of Mentor Graphics Corp. has been pushing forward its offer for British company Flomerics Group PLC -- an offer that Flomerics' board says is unacceptably low.
Flomerics' board has urged shareholders to reject the offer, which values the company at 1.2 times its historic revenue. The board pointed out that Mentor had rejected an offer equal to 1.8 times historic revenue from San Jose, Calif.-based Cadence.

Mentor itself owns almost 30 percent of Flomerics. The company purchased just over 20 percent of Flomerics' outstanding shares in mid-March, sending the stock soaring from less than 60 pence per share, where it had been trading since last summer, to more than 80 pence per share. The stock has continued to climb since.

Mentor first made its all-cash offer for Flomerics on May 9. The price of 104 pence per share represented a 19 percent premium to the previous day's closing price.

The offer represented an even higher premium -- 109 percent -- over the price of Flomerics' stock prior to Mentor's March 14 announcement that it was buying 20.1 percent of the company from a venture capital firm.

Flomerics has revealed it is also in talks with San Rafael, Calif. based Autodesk Inc. the maker of AutoCAD design software. Flomerics announced on June 12 that Autodesk has informed Flomerics' board that any offer would be all cash. A firm offer has not yet been made.

EVE Names Vice President of Worldwide Operations EVE appointed Christophe Ballan to the position of vice president of worldwide operations working in EVE’s corporate headquarters in Palaiseau, France. He reports to Dr. Luc Burgun, CEO and president.

Prior to joining EVE, he worked for ENEA, provider of embedded software and services, where he most recently served as vice president of business development and previously as sales and operations manager for Europe and Asia. Previously, he worked as an organizational consultant and as the Central European sales manager for Wind River Systems, helping grow the business in Central Europe to a significant portion of the company’s revenues. He was part of Wind River’s executive management during its IPO.

Dassault Systemes to Acquire Engineous Software Dassault Systèmes and Engineous Software announced an agreement in which DS would acquire Engineous Software. This acquisition will extend SIMULIA’s leadership in providing Simulation Lifecycle Management solutions on the V6 IP collaboration platform. The proposed acquisition, for an estimated price of 40 million USD, should be completed before the end of July subject to specific closing conditions. The transaction is expected to be non dilutive on DS non-GAAP 2008 earnings.

Aldec Delivers Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) Solution Aldec, Inc. announced ALINT 2008.06. The software compares Verilog source code against 195 design rules based on STARC 2006. ALINT gives engineers instant feedback on structural, coding and consistency problems early in the design verification cycle. New enhancements to ALINT 2008.06 include the addition of 15 new STARC rules, a new GUI including an advanced violation viewer, configuration manager and dedicated Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) rule-sets.

STMicroelectronics and NXP Unveil Management Team for Joint Venture NXP, the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips, and STMicroelectronics announced that their new joint venture name will be ST-NXP Wireless.

Created from the mobile and wireless businesses of STMicroelectronics and NXP, which together generated $3 billion USD in revenue in 2007, the new company will begin operations in a strong position to meet customer needs in 2G, 2.5G, 3G, multimedia, connectivity and all future wireless technologies. ST-NXP Wireless is expected to enter the market in number three position once full closure of the joint venture takes place, as scheduled, in the third quarter of 2008.

It was also announced today that the management team of ST-NXP Wireless will comprise experienced industry leaders from both parent companies. Alain Dutheil, presently chief operating officer (COO) of STMicroelectronics, has been assigned to lead ST-NXP Wireless as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) focusing exclusively on the new joint venture.

ST-NXP Wireless will be headquartered in Switzerland. Aiming to close in Q3 2008, the deal is subject to regulatory approvals and labor council consultation.

Other EDA News

• EMA Brings Digi-Key Part Information into Cadence OrCAD Capture CIS
• AWR and UMS Announce Availability of New Process Design Kit for Advanced GaAs MMIC Foundry Process
• SpringSoft Receives Award for Driving Interoperable PDK Library Standards
• Silicon Image's InstaPort Technology Provides Instant Access to HD Entertainment
• Silicon Image Input Processors Deliver Extraordinary 170MHz 36-bit Analog Quality with New HDMI Features
• Mentor Graphics Retains Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch To Advise on Unsolicited Offer From Cadence Design Systems
• Silicon Image Introduces New Generation of Port Processors With Unique Features for DTV Applications
• eASIC and Northwest Logic Deliver Low-Cost, Silicon-Proven, 533 Mbps DDR2 SDRAM Solution
• 45th Design Automation Conference (DAC) Awards Best Papers to Authors from Texas A&M University and Stanford University
• Duolog Technologies Wins Three "Best of DAC" Awards
• EVE Names Vice President of Worldwide Operations
• ADTechnology Becomes Newest Tensilica Authorized Design Center
• ProDesign CHIPit ASIC Prototyping System Accelerates Marvell ASIC Verification
• Flotherm Simulation Helps Redback Networks Create First Million-Subscriber Platform for Triple-Play Broadband, Phone and TV Services
• Mentor Graphics Enhances inFact to Exploit Distributed Compute Environments
• Mentor Graphics Delivers High-Performance Platform for the Accelerated Verification of PCI Express Applications
• Agilent Technologies' GoldenGate Simulator Chosen by Renesas Technology to Expand its RF Design Environment

Other IP & SoC News

• Bullet-Proof Reliability of DLP(R) Chip Enables Texas Instruments to Support Projector Customers by Offering a 5 Year DLP Chip Warranty [01 Jul 2008]
• STMicroelectronics First to Combine Handset Audio Filtering and ESD Protection [01 Jul 2008]
• New SonicsSX(TM) SMART Interconnect(TM) Solution Solves Memory Performance Problem for High Quality, High Definition Video SoCs
• TI introduces new analog front end with best-in-class power optimization for portable ultrasound systems
• SMSC Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2009 Results
• EZchip Technologies Delivers Samples of the NP-3 Network Processor to Customers
• Ericsson to provide mobile broadband modules for Toshiba business laptops
• HEARST BUSINESS MEDIA AND SILICON EXPERT
• LATTICE SEMICONDUCTOR ANNOUNCES AUTOMOTIVE VERSIONS OF ITS FLASH-BASED, NON-VOLATILE FPGA
• Worldwide Chip Sales Up 7.5 Percent in May
• Intel’s Dominance Is Challenged by a Low-Power Chips From Qualcomm (New York Times)
• Texas Instruments Delivers RFID Asset Visibility in Harsh and Metallic Environments with Two New Low Frequency Products
• Avago Technologies Expands Family of High-Speed Dual Voltage Digital Optocouplers for Power, Industrial and Consumer Apps
• Virage Logic Acquires Impinj's Logic Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) IP Business
• Amkor Announces New Flip Chip Packaging Technology at SEMICON West2008
• CoWare Delivers Support for ARM Cortex-based Applications
• National Semiconductor Enters Photovoltaic Market With Technology That Maximizes Solar Energy Production
• SiRF Requests International Trade Commission Review of Initial Determination in the SiRF Litigation Against Broadcom
• ChipX Strengthens Video and Wireless ASIC Capability With Addition of 10-Bit, 210Msps Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) Family to IP Portfolio
• Altera Increases Productivity for High-Performance DSP Designs by an Order of Magnitude
• Renesas Technology Introduces High-Frequency Power MOSFETs That Help Increase Power Efficiency and Reliability of Handheld Wireless Products
• IDT Introduces Ultra-Low-Power Timing Solutions for Ultra-Mobile PCs, Extending Battery Life
• MIPS32(R) 24Kc(TM) Pro Cores Power Magnum Semiconductor's DX1 Family of Professional Video Encoders
• Tower Semiconductor to Launch Volume Production of QuickLogic's ArcticLink II VX Solution Platforms for Mobile Display Devices
• SST Launches Enhanced Performance FlashFlex Microcontroller
• Micronas Single-Chip Audio Solution Targets Rapidly Growing Soundbar Market
• AMD Delivers World's First TeraFLOPS Graphics Chip
• MagnaChip Introduces 30V Single N-Channel MOSFETs for Computing Applications
• NEC Electronics America Announces New Single-Chip USB 2.0 Host and Peripheral Controller
• Micron Technology, Inc., Reports Results for the Third Quarter of Fiscal 2008
• MOSAID Reports Fourth Quarter and Year-end Results for Fiscal 2008 and Dividend
• STMicroelectronics and NXP Unveil Management Team for Joint Venture
• IR Introduces Three-Phase Gate Driver IC with Integrated Operational Amplifier and Bootstrap Functionality for Motor Drive Applications
• Cypress Incorporates Denali Blueprint for CSR Automation Management
• ARC Launches New Annual Licensing Model for Multimedia Codecs
• Avnet Memec Launches Actel Ultra-Low Power SpeedWay Design Workshop
• ANADIGICS Announces First Programmable Gain Amplifier Optimized for DOCSIS 3.0
• Crossbeam Systems Uses EZchip's Network Processors for its X-Series Next Generation Security Platform
• Sigma Media Processors Power Advanced Communications' IPTV Set-Top Boxes Across Japan

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-- Jack Horgan, EDACafe.com Contributing Editor.