EEsof

EEsof was founded in 1983 by an entrepreneur, Charles J. ("Chuck") Abronson, and a former Compact Software employee, Bill Childs [ [http://capwireless.com/About_Us/Staff_bios.html Charles J. Abronson bio at CAP Wireless] ] [ [http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/historyCAD.cfm#touchstone History of EEsof at Microwaves 101] ] [ [http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/historyCAD.cfm#compact History of Compact at Microwaves 101] ] . Its EDA products included high frequency circuit simulators such as Touchstone and Libra. Although the Touchstone simulator itself is obsolete [It was replaced by [http://eesof.tm.agilent.com/products/e8881a-new.html E8881 ADS Linear Simulator] ] , its eponymous file format lives on. EEsof was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 1993 [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3457/is_n36_v11/ai_14396893 "Hewlett-Packard to acquire EEsof", "Mobile Phone News", Sept 13, 1993] ] and later spun out as part of Agilent Technologies in 1999 thus becoming Agilent EEsof EDA [ [http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof Agilent EEsof EDA home page] ] .

After the merger of HP and EEsof, the EEsof products were combined with the HP simulator, Microwave Design System (MDS). MDS was first marketed in 1985 but the project actually predated EEsof: It evolved from a project by Les Besser when he was with HP [For more on Les Besser's subsequent work, please see the article on Compact Software] . The Touchstone UI was a textual netlist, whereas MDS had the first schematic capture UI in RF EDA.

The HP and EEsof harmonic balance simulators also had parallel lives before the merger. HP funded an employee Ken Kundert to do a PhD at UC Berkeley PhD. For his thesis he developed Spectra, the first harmonic balance prototype. Since Berkeley has an open policy to all of its research work, EEsof was able to learn about the project and actually released a product before HP was able to commercialise it in MDS. (Libra was a play on the Latin word libra for balance or scales). Ken left HP to join Cadence shortly after receiving his PhD to develop Spectre and SpectreRF.

Current products are Advanced Design System (ADS) RF EDA software, GoldenGate RFIC Simulator, IC-CAP (pronounced "icecap" or "eye-cee-cap") device modeling software and systems, Momentum, Electromagnetic Design System (EMDS), Genesys, SystemVue, RF Design Environment (RFDE), and Antenna Modeling Design System (AMDS). The SystemVue and Genesys products were added as a result of the acquistion of Eagleware-Elanix in 2005 [ [http://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2005/18aug-ep05088.html "Agilent Technologies completes acquisition of Eagleware-Elanix"] ] [ [http://www.mwjournal.com/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_4880 "Microwave Journal Speaks with Todd Cutler, Senior Manager, Agilent EEsof EDA"] ] . In turn Eagleware-Elanix was a result of the merger of Eagleware and Elanix [ [http://www10.edacafe.com/nbc/articles/view_weekly.php?articleid=209180 "Interview with Todd Cutler, CEO Eagleware-Elanix,"] by Jack Horgan, EDA Cafe] . Eagleware itself was founded in 1985 by Randy Rhea [ [http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/historyCAD.cfm#superstar History of CIRCUIT BUSTERS, Star, SUPERSTAR, and Eagleware] at Microwaves 101] .

References

Trademark Notice

Touchstone and EEsof are registered trademarks of Agilent Technologies, Inc.