As we've discussed before, embedded software has been a big target for CAD and PLM providers the last few years. Increasingly complex products demand solutions that can address both the software and hardware aspects of product design. Now we see signs that the embedded software requirement has hit the radar screens of CAE companies.
ANSYS, a leader in the simulation space, has acquired the French company Esterel Technologies SA in a bid to broaden its capabilities to encompass both hardware and software system development.
The acquisition, valued at $53 million, advances ANSYS' long-term strategy to propel its "Simulation Driven Product Development" capabilities to support system-level simulation, according to company officials. Combining ANSYS' hardware-oriented simulation lineup with Esterel's embedded software simulation tools will give engineers more insight into the behavior of the embedded software as it interacts with the hardware, including electrical, mechanical, and fluidic subsystems.
Through its acquisition of Esterel Technologies, ANSYS adds the SCADE Suite to its simulation portfolio, a design environment that enables software and systems engineers to design and simulate embedded software within a seamless workflow. (Source: Esterel Technologies)
The acquisition is an acknowledgement of the growing complexity of products -- from airplanes to cars to household appliances -- where embedded software and integrated electronics play an increasingly important role in differentiation.
Jim Cashman, ANSYS president and CEO, said in a press release:
Today's products are getting smarter. They have more electronics and software and this requires a systems engineering approach to product development. The combination of these two great companies will uniquely enable customers to comprehensively simulate complete systems and predict with confidence that their products will thrive in the real world. Further, we believe that the combination will foster innovation by gaining engineering insight across disciplines that have historically been silos.
Citing its other successful CFD analysis acquisitions, ANSYS officials said that the Esterel product suite will eventually be integrated with its core simulation platform. ANSYS plans to maintain Esterel as a wholly owned subsidiary once the deal closes this quarter. It also plans to retain Esterel's 80 employees to maintain domain expertise in embedded software simulation.
Esterel's 200 customers in a wide range of industries, including automotive, aircraft, rail transportation, industrial systems, and nuclear plants, dovetail nicely with ANSYS' own customer base, many of which are already using both systems and will benefit from a more integrated simulation suite, ANSYS officials said.
Esterel's simulation lineup comprises the SCADE system, a systems modeling tool suite that supports industrial systems engineering processes such as use case and functional requirement modeling along with system architecture design and verification; the SCADE Suite integrated design environment for requirement management, model-based design, simulation, verification, and certified code generation; and SCADE Display, a graphics design and code generation tool aimed at safety-critical embedded systems displays. It also includes SCADE LifeCycle, a lifecycle management framework providing capabilities in the area of requirement traceability, automated documentation production, project dashboarding, and test execution.
Beth, it looks like Esterel's SCADE Suite may include an IDE (integrated development environment) for embedded software, is that right? And it also looks like ANSYS wants to combine that with its simulation capabilities. Is this the first such combination?
That appears to be the case, Ann. I know of a lot of CAD vendors buying embedded software platforms (PTC's acquisition of MKS Integrity) and others adding embedded software capabilities and integration of such programs into their suites, but this is the first time I've seen a similar step by a pure CAE vendor. Perhaps I'm missing something so if I am, someone feel free to set me straight.
I've written about embedded software (and hardware) before, but I'm sure not the expert in this area. I wouldn't be surprised if this combination is a first, yet you'd think it would have happened by now, considering how long IDEs for embedded have been around and how long ago embedded hardware became ubiquitous. Anyway, it sure makes sense!
The embedded market is sorely in need of this. Today, it's said that embedded software development accounts for 70-80% of the development cost of a project. Also, it's said that the costs are $20-$40 per line of code. That means the development cost of an embedded product with a million lines of code could be $20 to $40 million. Given those numbers, anything that streamlines embedded software development is going to be welcome.
The bigger picture reason for all this, beyond a big market opportunity and beyond more tools to facilitate embedded software design, is systems engineering. As Chuck says, more and more products (not just cars--but they're the poster child for this) are incorporating code. Some have more software code than mechanical parts. That said, engineers can no longer afford to do embedded software design in systems that aren't connected to their other core development tools like MCAD and its related CAE stuff. ANSYS' move is designed to address that need for integrated systems, not siloes, and to foster a broader systems engineering approach to product design, particularly when it comes to simulation.
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