Agilent Technologies to Establish New Electronic Design Automation Simulation Center at GEDC

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced an agreement to supply its Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software, support and training to a new center at the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) in Atlanta. 

The new, dedicated Agilent EDA Simulation Center will provide RF and microwave system and circuit design instruction and additional software design capabilities to Georgia Tech students, and will provide licenses at no cost or greatly discounted to start-ups in wireless communications design at GEDC.  

The venture, located at Georgia Tech’s Technology Square, is expected to be fully operational by year’s end.

"We are excited about Agilent’s participation with us.  Their EDA tools help us to continue to advance the technology and support our students, as well as to encourage and support commercial innovation” said Joy Laskar, director of GEDC. “We also want to contribute to the success of other academic and non-profit institutions through sharing our experience in this partnership with Agilent, and we are making plans to release large portions of work using the Agilent EEsof EDA platforms for academic use.”

The deal marks a significant expansion of the long-standing relationship between Georgia Tech and Agilent and is a key part of Agilent’s strategy to develop extensive relationships with key universities worldwide, through the newly created Agilent EEsof EDA University Alliance program.  It includes a tailored, three-year custom license program to provide access to the complete line of Agilent EEsof EDA tools to start-up companies during their critical formative period. 

"This is one of the largest academic donations of Agilent EEsof products to a single institution to date,” said Jim McGillivary, vice president and general manager with Agilent's EEsof EDA division. "We realize that universities and start-up incubator programs play a crucial role in pushing the limits of EDA tools. They consistently ask for and expect Agilent to offer integrated and leading simulation technology in all areas, and we are pleased to support their efforts."

Academic uses of the Agilent EEsof Simulation Center at GEDC will focus on Agilent EEsof’s Advanced Design System (ADS), the 3D Electromagnetic Design System (EMDS) 3D EM simulator and the AMDS simulator that incorporates Antenna EM simulation technology recently acquired by Agilent. The center will also be the world’s largest academic installation of Agilent’s Golden Gate simulator in a parallel processor environment. Golden Gate offers the ability to simulate complex CMOS RFIC designs, including complete network parasitic elements, in production scale SOC implementations. Initial plans include a 60 parallel core configuration.

“Georgia Tech is uniquely positioned within our Agilent EEsof University Alliance program to expand research and development activities for parallelization of Agilent EEsof products,” said Todd Cutler, product marketing manager with Agilent’s EEsof EDA division. “The energy, enthusiasm and drive of academics and small companies spark development of new RF and microwave design innovations that our enterprise customers can adopt and run with.  It’s really exciting for all of us.”

Agilent also plans to offer customer training at the GEDC’s Agilent EDA Simulation Center. 

Additional information about Agilent's EDA software offerings is available at www.agilent.com/find/eesof.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world’s premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company’s 19,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $5.0 billion in fiscal year 2006. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.