Popular EDA Tools
Here is a list of major EDA tools for various stages of (mostly digital) design flow. These are tools considered stable and suitable for sign-off by the industry. This is what I have used or at least know people have been using them. Must have missed out niche and rare tools in use by others. Please leave a comment if I missed some important tools!
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| Area | Cadence | Synopsys | Mentor Graphics | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Prototying | Virtual System Platform [VSP] | VaST CoMET and METeor, Virtualizer | Vista | - |
| RTL Linting, Clock Tracing, Constraint generation | Incisive HAL | Leda RTL Checker | - | Spyglass [Atrenta], Fishtail Focus |
| Digital Simulation | Incisive - NcSim | VCS | Questasim | - |
| Analog Simulation | Incisive - AMS | CustomSim | Questa ADMS | - |
| Circuit Simulation | Spectre | Hspice (accurate), Hsim (Fast) | Eldo Classic | - |
| Formal Verification[Property Checking] | IFV [Incisive Formal Verifier] | Magellan | OneSpin[OSS] | |
| Formal Verification[Equivalence Checking] | Conformal LEC | Formality | FormalPro | OneSpin[OSS] |
| Testbench Qualification | - | - | - | Certitude |
| Debugging | Incisive [SimVision] | Verdi [SpringSoft] | Questa | - |
| Multi-voltage rule checker | Conformal Low Power | MVRC | - | - |
| Clock-Domain Crossing (CDC) Verification | Conformal Constraint Designer | - | Questa CDC | Spyglass [Atrenta], Meridian [Real Intent] |
| e-testbench | Specman | - | - | - |
| Regression Manager | vManager | CustomExplorer Ultra | Questa Verification Manager | - |
| Logic Synthesis | RTL Compiler [RC] | Design Compiler | Intuitive | - |
| Place & Route | Encounter (EDI) | IC Compiler | Olympus | - |
| Static Timing Analysis | Encounter Timing System[ETS] | Prime Time [PT] | - | - |
| Extraction | QRC | StarRC XT | Calibre xRC | - |
| Automatic test pattern generation | TrueTime ATPG | TetraMax | FastScan | - |
| Physical Verification | Assura | Hercules | Calibre | - |
| Power Analysis | EPS | Prime Time - PX | - | - |
| Rail Analysis | EPS | Prime Rail | - | - |