EDA modeling tool vendor names new CEO

Dylan McGrath

September 14, 2010

Dylan McGrath

SAN FRANCISCO—EDA startup Lynguent Inc. Tuesday (Sept. 14) appointed Sam Young, a 35-year-veteran of the semiconductor industry, to the position of president and CEO.

Martin Vlach, Lynguent's founder and former CEO, has assumed the position of chief technology officer.

Lynguent (Portland, Ore.) is a nine-year old startup that provides environments that enable designers to create, manage and support HDL-based simulation models for analog, digital and mixed-signal domains.

Prior to assuming the role of president and CEO, Young served on Lynguent's advisory board. He has more than 35 years of semiconductor industry experience, most recently as vice president of marketing and sales at non-volatile memory startup Contour Semiconductor Inc. He previously served as vice president of marketing for Hynix Semioncudtor's flash memory business unit, in addition to various other postings.

Young co-founded three technology companies including Exel Microelectronics, Corsair Microsystems and Hyundai Electronics' flash memory division, and held senior management positions with a number of other successful companies.

"Sam’s background in defining and specifying product lines, forging strategic alliances and directing sales and marketing is exactly what we need as Lynguent enters a critical time in its history—broadening its reach into the semiconductor and systems market while forging new strategic alliances," Vlach said.

Young cited several reasons for his interest in the CEO position at Lynguent, including the quality of the company's products and its personnel. Lynguent is angel-funded, and he said that many of the company's sales executives are so impressed with the products that they have taken investment positions.

"When your sales guys that are talking to the customers throw some cash in, that really tells you something," Young said.

According to Young, Lynguent's tools are synergistic, not competitive with offerings from the leading analog/mixed-signal EDA vendors, Mentor Graphics Corp. and Cadence Design Systems Inc. Lyguent is officially part of Cadence's Connections partnership program, and its tool has been integrated into the Cadence design environment, he said. He added that the company is pursuing a closer relationship with Mentor.