Introduction

A $35 billion transformation that enhances value for channel partner customers 

After an 18-month regulatory marathon, Synopsys officially completed its massive $35 billion acquisition of Ansys a couple of weeks ago, marking one of the most significant deals in semiconductor design history. The transaction, which closed on July 17, 2025, fundamentally reshapes how AI-powered products will be designed and developed from conception to production. 

The regulatory process forced strategic sacrifices. Synopsys had to divest its prized optical software division, including industry-standard tools like LightTools and RSoft, to Keysight Technologies. Similarly, Ansys was required to sell its PowerArtist power analysis tool. While painful, these concessions cleared the path for a transformative combination. 

Why This Merger Matters: The Silicon-to-Systems Vision 

The union creates something unprecedented in the semiconductor industry: a unified platform spanning chip design through system-level simulation. Here’s why this integration is revolutionary: 

Bridging the Physics-Electronics Gap 

Modern AI systems demand unprecedented integration between electronic design and physical reality. An autonomous vehicle chip, for example, must consider not just computational efficiency, but thermal dissipation, electromagnetic interference, and mechanical stress—all before a single prototype is built. 

Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi captured this shift perfectly: “The increasing complexity of developing intelligent systems demands design solutions with a deeper integration of electronics and physics, enhanced by AI.” 

Market Expansion Beyond Semiconductors 

The combined entity now addresses a $31 billion total addressable market, expanding Synopsys’s reach into aerospace, automotive, and industrial sectors where Ansys has deep expertise. This represents a 1.5x expansion of Synopsys’s previous market opportunity. 

AI-Enhanced Design Workflows 

The merger enables AI-driven optimization across the entire product development cycle. Instead of sequential design phases, engineers can now simulate chip behavior within system contexts, dramatically reducing development cycles and improving first-pass design success rates. 

Financial Strength: A Powerful Growth Engine 

The combined entity brings together two financially strong companies with complementary revenue streams and exciting growth potential: 

• $400 million in projected annual synergies by 2027, driving enhanced profitability 

• Expected margin expansion of 125 basis points in the first full year post-closing 

• Ansys contributes an estimated $750+ million to fiscal 2025 revenue 

• Strong recurring revenue base from both companies’ proven subscription models 

• Expanded $31 billion total addressable market, growing at approximately 11% annually 

The merger creates a financially robust platform capable of sustained investment in R&D, customer success, and next-generation innovation that will benefit the entire ecosystem. 

Great News for Channel Partner Customers: Enhanced Value and Continuity 

The merger brings exciting new opportunities for customers working with established channel partners, while ensuring the same high-quality support and expertise you’ve come to rely on. 

What Stays the Same: Your Trusted Partnership 

Continuity with Your Current Partner: Your existing relationship with trusted channel partners like DRD Technology remains unchanged and stronger than ever. Elite Channel Partners who have been serving customers for decades continue to provide the same personalized service, expert guidance, and responsive support that has made them industry leaders. 

Proven Support Excellence: Established partners maintain their commitment to customer success with the same dedicated engineering teams, comprehensive training programs, and ultra-responsive support that has earned them recognition as top-rated support providers. Partners like DRD Technology, with over 40 years of Ansys expertise and a 97% year-over-year customer retention rate, continue delivering the exceptional service their customers expect. 

Seamless Transition: Both Synopsys and Ansys have maintained separate support systems during the integration (ACSS for Ansys products, SolvNetPlus for Synopsys products), ensuring zero disruption to your current projects and support needs. 

What Gets Better: Expanded Capabilities and Value 

Access to Integrated Solutions: Your channel partner can now offer you access to a dramatically expanded portfolio that combines the best of both worlds—Synopsys’s industry-leading EDA tools with Ansys’s world-class simulation capabilities. This means more comprehensive solutions for your complex engineering challenges. 

Enhanced Technical Expertise: Elite Channel Partners are expanding their already deep technical knowledge to cover integrated silicon-to-systems workflows. This means even better guidance on optimizing your entire design and simulation process, from chip-level design through system validation. 

Streamlined Procurement: Working with your trusted partner becomes even more valuable as they can now provide access to integrated design workflows without requiring you to manage relationships with multiple software vendors. 

Exciting New Opportunities for Your Business 

Accelerated Innovation: The integrated platform enables faster development cycles by providing a unified design-to-validation pipeline. Your engineering teams can now simulate real-world system behavior directly from the chip design phase, reducing prototyping costs and time-to-market. 

Expanded Application Areas: Channel partners can now support your expansion into new markets and applications with comprehensive tools spanning semiconductors, automotive, aerospace, industrial equipment, and emerging AI-powered products. 

Future-Ready Solutions: The combined platform positions you to take advantage of next-generation AI-enhanced design capabilities as they become available, with your trusted partner guiding you through each evolution. 

What Gets Better: Expanded Capabilities and Value 

Deep Industry Knowledge: Established partners bring decades of experience across multiple physics domains and industries, helping you navigate the expanded capabilities effectively. Their expertise becomes even more valuable as the tool portfolio grows. 

Personalized Training and Support: Elite partners continue providing custom-tailored training programs, application-specific consulting, and the responsive support that ensures your team achieves proficiency quickly with any new capabilities you choose to adopt. 

Long-term Partnership Commitment: The most successful channel partners view software sales as just the beginning of a long-term relationship focused on your success. This customer-first approach becomes even more important as the combined platform evolves. 

Introduction

In the ever-evolving world of product development for all kinds of industries including aviation, automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare, engineers face many challenges while developing a final product that meets requirements. Both physical prototyping and software simulation help engineers model and analyze different systems, processes, and products. Understanding the differences between these two methods becomes crucial for developing products on-time and on-spec. In this blog, we’ll explore the distinctions between traditional prototyping and software simulation to help you choose the right path for your project.

Physical Prototyping

The setup and integrations required for physical prototyping consists of having design software, materials, test equipment and techniques, and quality assurance. The materials will vary depending on the nature of the project but can include raw materials, electronic components, or mechanical parts. Having the proper equipment also requires the right safety equipment to ensure a safe working environment.

Software Simulation

The setup and integrations required for software simulations depend on a few common elements and considerations. Hardware must be capable of running the simulation software with sufficient processing power and memory, and software should be selected based on specific features for your simulation. Lastly, training and support materials for users and developers are helpful for long-term success.

Both software simulation and physical prototyping have a place in the product development cycle. These two approaches serve different but complementary purposes within the product development process. Engineers must determine how much physical testing can be avoided through the use of software simulation during product development.  With the understanding of cost, time, and product requirements, they can choose the best path to ensure that the final product meets the desired specifications and quality standards.

Cost Considerations Drive Decisions

Software simulation may result in a higher initial investment in terms of software and training. These upfront costs are associated with developing or implementing a simulation software system for a specific purpose. Many simulation products come with licensing or subscription fees that can be one-time, monthly, or an annual renewal cost. However, software simulations generally have a lower long-term cost and reduce the need for physical materials, machinery, and labor that are necessary for physical testing. For applications where upfront cost is the absolute deciding factor, physical prototyping can be the right solution. For organizations looking to invest in their product development cycle, simulation provides a long-term solution that can be used repeatedly as you modify and evolve a product or create new products.

Speed

Time to market is a critical factor for many projects across all industries. It is based on the scope and complexity of the project, the team’s experience with software, and access to all resources required to complete the project. Simulation provides a digital platform that invites collaboration for sharing, analyzing, and discussions. It is more accessible to work collaboratively across distances saving time than requiring physical presence, which can create logistical challenges.

Risk assessments are paramount in product development. Simulation can help identify potential risks and issues early in the process, saving time and resources. The common risks and challenges associated with simulation varies from the quality of data input, the possibility of bugs or limitations in software tools to produce inaccurate results, and ensuring the model accurately fits the real-world representation. When time is not a critical factor for projects, physical prototyping is often used in product development. One would have the ability to physically interact with the product quickly, giving you a real-world sense of its form, function, and usability. Simulation abates the need for physical components – when supply chain constraints are an issue, engineers using simulation can begin testing based on the software-defined version of their product rather than having to wait for physical prototypes.

End Product Variables

Building physical prototypes can be expensive if numerous iterations are required.  Several types of products and industries often involve more than one iteration due to the complexity and need for optimization. In the electronics industry, products like smartphones and laptops undergo frequent iteration to incorporate the latest improvement and enhance user experience. In the Aerospace industry, complex systems like aircraft and satellites require extensive iterations to meet the strict guidelines. Car manufacturers and development of medical devices to name a few more.

Software simulation allows for rapid testing and iterations as many changes can be made virtually with a few clicks. This allows for quick changes and adjustments without the need to rebuild physical models. The flexibility to develop multiple iterations saves both time and resources. In contrast, physical prototyping may require more time and resources through each iteration. While physical prototyping for real-world testing is a crucial phase in product development, ideally it would be limited due to the time and costs involved. In addition, during real-world testing, unexpected issues or challenges can arise that are native only to the test environment.

Nelson Global harnessed the power of software simulation in this real-world example to optimize their muffler designs for refrigerated transport vehicles. By leveraging simulation, Nelson Global significantly reduced development time and costs, all while enhancing efficiency, reducing emissions, and meeting regulatory requirements. Nelson Global used the Ansys software suite to design two mufflers within three days. The typical duration for physical prototyping would be weeks involving manual hand calculations with less of an accurate outcome. 

In the end, both software simulation and physical prototyping have their places in product development. For many, a combination of both approaches can be the most effective solution. Starting with software simulation for the initial design and risk assessment, and then transitioning to physical prototyping for real-world testing. The right approach is the one that will align with your project’s requirements. 

The combination of Ansys, a globally recognized simulation tool, and DRD Technology, an integrator for Ansys tools, offer a comprehensive approach to product design and optimization. Ansys provides a suite of engineering simulation software tools that are widely used in various industries to simulate real-world scenarios. Ansys software simulation includes but is not limited to structures, fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, optical simulation, acoustic, and thermal analysis. These tools can be used in a wide range of industries including aerospace, automotive, electronics, manufacturing, and many more. Ansys Elite Channel Partner, DRD Technology, has achieved the highest level of proficiency and met rigorous performance requirements with the Ansys platform so that we can help you design, simulate, and succeed.

To learn more, read the full case study documenting how Nelson Global took their prototyping process from weeks to just three days using simulation.