micromagic.com

What It Is

Micro Magic, Inc. is a privately held EDA and IC design services company based in Sunnyvale, California, founded in 1995. It is not positioned as a general-purpose developer tool, but rather as a provider of high-end CAD/EDA tools, IP, and engineering services for chip developers, with a focus on high-speed, low-power SoCs, processors, memories, datapaths, and 3D IC/TSV/Interposer projects.

Core Capabilities

Based on the main site content, Micro Magic’s core products are the MAX-3D Design Suite and MAX series layout editing tools, covering True-3D Layout, Chip/Package/Board co-design, TSV Placer, Path Finder, and SoC layout editing and viewing with real-time DRC. The company also provides capabilities related to graphical design entry, design flow management, datapath, and memory compilation. On the services side, it offers complete IC design, architecture-to-circuit-and-layout work, methodology reviews, and specialized services such as Gate Optimizer and Short-Finder. In terms of supported data formats, the text explicitly mentions Verilog, DSPF/SPEF, .LIB, DEF, and others, but does not disclose any scripting interface, API, or SDK.

Pricing and Delivery

The website does not publicly disclose tool pricing, licensing models, trial policies, or payment methods. Its business model includes selling proprietary closed-source EDA tools, contract-based design services, and IP licensing. Gate Optimizer is described as a service that “does not require purchasing tools,” where MMI engineers process customer design data and return optimized results, but no pricing is provided. As a result, procurement typically requires contacting sales and going through a project evaluation.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths lie in a team with backgrounds at Sun, HP, SGI, DEC, and similar companies, with an emphasis on real chip design experience. The tools are developed and used by its own design services team, making them suitable for projects with demanding requirements around performance, power consumption, layout visualization, and 3D stacking. The official site also mentions on-site training and claims users can get started with the tutorials in half a day. The weaknesses are that public information is not very complete: system requirements, platform compatibility, APIs/automation, licensing, pricing, and full documentation are missing. Ecosystem integration information is also more limited than what is available from major mainstream EDA vendors.

Who It’s For and Access from China

It is better suited to semiconductor companies, advanced packaging/3D IC teams, custom processor or memory teams, and companies that need to outsource high-speed, low-power design work. It is not suitable for ordinary software developers or users who only need lightweight layout viewing. The available content does not make it possible to determine accessibility from China, and payment methods are not disclosed. For EDA tool procurement, buyers should also pay special attention to export controls, business compliance, network accessibility, and local support. Comparable options include Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens EDA, while lighter-weight use cases may evaluate alternatives such as KLayout.