[ Thanks to David F.
Skoll for this link. ]
“Genedax, a high-profile EDA startup that was on the eve of
rolling out a Windows-based design collaboration tool, suddenly
decided to liquidate its assets on Monday (Feb. 14) after failing
to secure last-ditch financing. The unexpected collapse of Genedax
illustrates the diminishing impact of Windows NT in the EDA world,
as well as the growing lack of sufficient venture capital.”
“What killed Genedax, Ott said, was its inability to attract
enough venture funding. Although the company secured $4 million in
second-round funding in October 1999, it found itself $2 million
short, Ott said. ‘We weren’t able to get enough support out of
Microsoft and we weren’t able to make enough progress fast enough,’
he said.”
“But another, deeper problem was Genedax’ embrace of Windows
NT — an operating system that has won some support in board
and PLD design, but has been largely rejected by chip
designers.”
” ‘The interesting question is what this means for
Microsoft,’ said Ott. ‘We are the last ones left that were
really pushing the banner of the power and capability there.
We were spending too much time evangelizing Microsoft, and it was
prohibitively expensive.’ Ott said Genedax was taken by surprise at
last year’s Design Automation Conference, when Gary Smith, chief
EDA analyst at Dataquest Inc., said that Windows NT was falling
behind in the EDA industry.”