Cadence Design Systems acquired Altos Design Automation. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Altos is a leader in foundation IP enablement. The company has over 30 customers, including 11 of the top 20 semiconductor companies. Altos Design Automation specializes in enabling foundation IP development for the delivery of complex SoCs at advanced nodes. Foundation IP characterization is becoming mission critical at advanced nodes due to shrinking time-to-market windows, escalating low-power, high-speed design complexities, and variations in advanced processes. Altos’ solutions enable fast and accurate characterization of memory, standard cell libraries and other foundation IP. Their tools generate required models for SoC implementation. When combined with the Cadence end-to-end Silicon Realization portfolio, Altos tools improve visibility into the effects of noise, timing and power at every phase of the design cycle, including foundation IP design creation, extraction, SPICE simulation, and implementation.