In 2021, a comprehensive comparison of global EDA leading companies, who is the "King of EDA"?

Currently, the global EDA is monopolized by the three major companies Synopsys, Cadence, and Siemens EDA. Comparing these three leading companies, who is the "King of EDA" in the world?

Major listed companies in the industry: Synopsys (SNPs), Cadence (CDNS)

The core data of this article: Synopsys, Cadence, and Siemens EDA financial data, EDA market share, product layout

1. Comparison of corporate development history: the development of the three major companies is inseparable from mergers and acquisitions

The EDA industry has developed from the contending of a hundred schools of thought in the 1980s and 1990s to the present. Synopsys, Cadence, and Siemens EDA have formed a three-pronged trend in the world.

Synopsys was founded in 1986. The founding team used to work at General Electric's Microelectronics Center. The founder, Dr. Aarde Geus, was supervised by Professor Rohrer, the father of the SPICE simulation program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Cadence was formed by the merger of SDA and ECAD. SDA was established in 1983. The founding team was students from the University of California, Berkeley, and researchers from Bell Labs.

The predecessor of Siemens EDA was Mentor Graphics. Mentor Graphics was founded in 1981. The founding team came from Tektronix, an electronic manufacturing company in Oregon, USA; Mentor Graphics was acquired by Siemens in 2017, and Siemens renamed Mentor Graphics Siemens EDA in 2021.

Looking at these three global EDA leading companies, their growth is inseparable from continuous mergers and acquisitions of companies with competitive advantages in Point Tools.

2. Comparison of corporate business layout

——EDA product layout: different leading products, perfect product line

Up to now, the EDA product lines of these three major companies are very rich, which have basically covered all aspects of chip design, but each company's competitive products have their own characteristics. Synopsys focuses on digital chip design, static timing verification and confirmation, and SIP provision while laying out supporting full-process tools. Cadence focuses on analog, digital-analog hybrid platforms, digital backends, DDR4 IP, etc. Siemens EDA focuses on back-end verification, testability design, optical proximity correction, etc.

—— EDA industry chain extension: all extend to the downstream industry chain

In addition, the three leading EDA companies have extended the downstream industry chain. At present, the products and services provided by Synopsys have covered EDA, IP and system integration, software services, etc. In 2020, Synopsys' EDA business revenue accounted for 57%, and IP and system integration, software service revenue accounted for 33% and 10%.

Cadence's business covers custom IC design and simulation, digital IC design and eco-performance, functional verification, IP, system design, and analysis. These major businesses account for 25%, 19%, 22%, 14% and 14% of revenue in 2020, respectively. 10%.

Siemens EDA's current business includes IC design, verification and manufacturing, IC packaging design and verification, electronic system design and manufacturing, and EDA services.

——Sales network layout: all have a global layout, and the Asian layout has different focuses

In terms of sales network layout, these three leading EDA companies have operations all over the world, and the United States is their largest sales market. In 2020, Synopsys' revenue in the US market is 48.1%; Cadence's revenue in the US market is 40.9%.

At the same time, these three companies also regard China as an important sales network market. These three companies have begun to deploy the Chinese market as early as the end of the 20th century. Among them, Siemens EDA has the earliest layout and entered the Chinese market in 1989. Synopsys currently accounts for 11.4% of Chinas business revenue; Cadence accounts for 15.2% of Chinas business revenue; Siemens EDA ranks third in Chinas EDA market share.

However, the layout of the three in other Asian regions is slightly different. Synopsys pays more attention to the South Korean market. In 2020, Synopsys will account for 10.6% of total revenue in South Korea. Cadence will focus on the Japanese market. In 2020, Cadence will account for 6.7% of total revenue in Japan.

3. Comparison of corporate performance

——Operating revenue: Synopsys has a larger revenue scale

In terms of revenue, in 2020, Synopsys' total revenue is 3.685 billion U.S. dollars; Cadence's total revenue is 2.3 billion U.S. dollars. It can be seen that Synopsys has a larger revenue scale than Cadence.

—— EDA market share: Synopsys leads the world

In terms of market share, Synopsys' EDA business has the world's largest market share, 32.14% in 2020; Cadence and Siemens EDA rank second and third, respectively, with a 2020 market share of 23.4% and 14%.

4. Forward-looking view: Synopsys is the "King of EDA" in the world

On the whole, Synopsys, Cadence, and Siemens EDA all have a rich product line, and at the same time, they all extend their business to the downstream of the industrial chain and have also deployed sales networks around the world. However, in terms of operating income and market share, Synopsys is currently slightly better. Therefore, forward-looking, Synopsys is the "King of EDA" in the world.