Microsoft knew what they were doing: using secrecy, obfuscated formats/protocols, copyright law, and patent law to block as much competition as possible. They m

Microsoft knew what they were doing: using secrecy, obfuscated formats/protocols, copyright law, and patent law to block as much competition as possible. They made billions in the process. The EDA vendors do something similar but mostly acquire competitors. There's just three of them covering the basics parts of ASIC design. They aren't competing on driving prices down, either. So, their strategy is smart until they, like Microsoft, get in a situation where less and less customers need them. I did think one could do a more open version of EDA, though. I was gonna try to talk to someone at smaller player, Mentor, but they got bought. Im keeping my eyes open for new players wanting a differentiator.