Siemens Acquires PRO DESIGN Prototyping Solutions

Building on the recent announcement of its next-generation Veloce hardware-assisted verification system for integrated circuits (ICs), Siemens Digital Industries Software has signed an agreement with Germany-based PRO DESIGN Electronic GmbH to acquire its proFPGA product family of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) desktop prototyping technologies. The proFPGA product line has a track record of enabling more than 100 customers to 'shift left' in their critical hardware and software verification tasks, enabling faster time-to-market.

Through a prior OEM relationship with PRO DESIGN, proFPGA technology is already part of Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio as part of its world-class suite of electronic design automation (EDA) IC verification offerings. Bringing the proFPGA technology and team in-house can allow Siemens to more fully integrate and optimize the scalable, high-performance prototyping platform for lab and desktop environments into its Veloce hardware-assisted verification system. 

“Our acquisition of the proFPGA business is motivated by our growing success serving the needs of the world’s leading processor and SoC creators, who demand a full suite of verification solutions tailored to their use-cases, from IP to sub-system to SoC,” said Ravi Subramanian, Ph.D., senior vice president, IC Verification, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “The addition of proFPGA for desktop prototyping rounds out our Veloce Primo enterprise prototyping and Veloce Strato+ emulation solutions. We can address the full spectrum of our customers’ need to have fast verification cycles available under a single, unified software programming model.”

PRO DESIGN will continue to operate as an independent company and a provider of electronic engineering and manufacturing services (E²MS), offering consulting, development, layout and prototyping as well as volume production services. The company’s main emphasis remains on providing its customers with FPGA-based solutions and PCIe boards for high-performance computing applications, targeting a variety of end-markets.

“With over 1,900 systems across 120 active customers in 15 countries, proFPGA technology provides a strong position for Siemens to continue to rapidly gain market share in the prototyping market segment, capitalizing on the growing use of prototyping across datacenter, 5G, artificial intelligence, automotive and internet of things (IoT) applications,” said Gunnar Scholl, director of proFPGA Solutions, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “This transaction allows PRO DESIGN to remain focused on continuing to invest in and serve its E²MS business customers to the fullest extent, while allowing the proFPGA product family to grow in line with the expanded presence that Siemens has in the EDA market.”

Siemens’ acquisition of PRO DESIGN’s proFPGA product family has closed. Terms of the transaction are not disclosed.