Backplane interface specialist Accelerant Networks Inc. has been acquired by an unexpected suitor, design automation software firm Synopsys Inc. (see Synopsys Buys Monolithic, Accelerant).

Terms of the deal, announced yesterday, were not disclosed. A Synopsys spokeswoman says the company intends to hire all 20 of Accelerant's staff.

Chipmakers buy each other all the time, but Synopsys is different -- it sells the software used by chip designers to create ASICs. It also provides a library of ready-made designs, often called "cores," that customers can insert into their own chips.

That's where the interest in Accelerant lies. Accelerant's interface technology, which can send clean signals across copper traces at speeds of 6.25 Gbit/s, will become part of Synopsys's DesignWare portfolio of intellectual property, where it will be licensed out for use inside ASICs and FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays).

In fact, the deal is a lot like the sale of Velio Communications Inc.'s interface technology to Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq: RMBS) in December (see Rambus Buys Velio's Serial Biz). Rambus doesn't sell chips either; it licenses high-speed interfaces to chipmakers.

Other companies developing high-speed backplane technology include Agere Systems Inc. (NYSE: AGR.A), Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (Nasdaq: AMCC), BitBlitz Communications Inc., Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (Nasdaq: MRVL), PMC-Sierra Inc. (Nasdaq: PMCS), and Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: VTSS).

Synopsys also struck a deal yesterday to acquire memory chip vendor Monolithic System Technology Inc. (MoSys) (Nasdaq: MOSY) for $432 million in cash and stock.

— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading