Acquisition to marry hardware and software design

Protel International has acquired Tasking for US$38 million.

Protel International has acquired Tasking for US$38 million.

In an industry that has traditionally seen clear lines of demarcation between design tools for hardware and software, the two parties claim this acquisition represents the first true "single-source" solution for electronics designers.

"The powerful combination of Protel and Tasking gives designers the opportunity to purchase both hardware design tools and software design tools from the same vendor - a first for a desktop EDA tool company", said Kayvan Oboudiyat, CEO of Protel International.

"This move will further strengthen Protel's position as the leading independent vendor of Windows-based, desktop EDA solutions".

The use of embedded microprocessors has become commonplace in electronic design and more recently the industry has seen rapid moves towards "system-on-chip" design methodologies.

This, combined with the fact that there is a convergence between hardware and software design tasks and a broadening of an individual engineer's coverage of design areas, leads to an increasing need for greater links between embedded hardware and software design environments.

This acquisition, in conjunction with Protel's recent entry into the programmable device (FPGA) design area, allows Protel to provide engineers with all the tools they need for virtually all electronic product design flows.

Frank Despomare, Tasking 's founder and Chairman stated, "We believe the joining of Protel and Tasking will provide our semiconductor partners with an opportunity to solve the long-standing problem of hardware and software integration".

Scott Taitel, Tasking 's COO added that "Both customer bases are looking for powerful complete solutions to address next-generation electronic design challenges so they will greatly benefit from being able to purchase hardware design and software development tools from a single source".

Already a successful provider of leading desktop board-level (PCB) and programmable chip-level (FPGA) design tools, Protel's focus is and has always been on providing a complete and affordable toolset for all forms of electronic design.

Embedded software development has generally been treated by tool vendors as separate from hardware design.

Tasking 's embedded software expertise and broad range of embedded systems products can be combined with Protel's novel platform for the development of electronic design tools.

This will create a significant opportunity to close the gap between electronics hardware and software design, which will enable engineers to benefit from the provision of a full set of electronic design tools from a single supplier, completely addressing their embedded systems design needs.

Protel's aggressive strategies for growth and strong financial position, following a successful IPO in August 1999, serve to provide Tasking with a solid backing for the future.

This joining of forces provides significant opportunities for both Protel and Tasking customers and further strengthens Protel's position in providing a complete set of powerful, easy-to-use tools for the desktop electronic design market.

Most importantly this will make the combined product offerings a highly attractive alternative to high-priced tools from work-station-focused EDA vendors.

The management teams of Protel and Tasking are now currently focusing on the seamless integration of the businesses and rapidly moving forward with the strategies to bring it's leading brands to an even wider customer base, seeking out new areas of market penetration and continuing to strengthen it's market leading position in the desktop arena.

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