Ansys被收购：一个时代的落幕与新生

从来都是Ansys 买别人，这回居然被卖了。

Ansys was formed in 1970 by John Swanson, a mechanical engineer who developed software in the 1960s for Westinghouse to help analyze stresses on nuclear reactors.

50年来，一直买买买，最后成了CAE 界的大佬。

The company added other products over the years and became a major player in engineering software. Ajei Gopal, its chief executive since 2017, was formerly an operating partner at Silver Lake, a private equity firm.

扭腰时报认为：

随着人工智能的蓬勃发展和一些硬件销售的放缓，这笔交易是科技行业发生变化的最新迹象。The deal was the latest sign of changes in the tech sector, as artificial intelligence booms and sales of some hardware slows.

且慢慢看。

Synopsys , a key Silicon Valley supplier to the chip industry, said on Tuesday that it had agreed to pay $35 billion for Ansys, a Pennsylvania company that makes software used to simulate and analyze product designs for electronics manufacturers, car makers, defense contractors and others.

硅谷芯片业的重要供应商 Synopsys 公司周二表示，已同意以 350 亿美元的价格收购 Ansys 公司，后者是宾夕法尼亚州的一家公司，为电子制造商、汽车制造商、国防承包商和其他公司提供用于模拟和分析产品设计的软件。

A.I. has prompted heavy spending in data centers and has also led many giant internet companies to start designing their own chips. Some carmakers, which have become a major new source of chip demand amid pressures to electrify more vehicles and add driver-assistance features, are also designing their own chips.

人工智能促使数据中心投入巨资，也促使许多巨型互联网公司开始设计自己的芯片。在更多汽车电气化和增加驾驶辅助功能的压力下，一些汽车制造商也在设计自己的芯片，它们已成为芯片需求的主要新来源。

理论上来看，神经网络 有替换仿真软件的价值，

Synopsys is a pioneer in software that simulates and verifies chip designs, gradually adding products to help design more complete electronic systems. It has worked with Ansys since 2017 to win more customers for such tasks.

Sassine Ghazi, the chief executive of Synopsys, said the desire to buy Ansys was prompted by the need to move even faster to deliver software that can simulate the electrical and physical interactions of multiple components in systems.

“The worlds of semiconductor design and physical simulation and analysis must come together,” he said in a conference call with analysts.

Some Synopsys shareholders opposed the deal, analysts said, in part because Ansys had recently posted a slower revenue growth rate than Synopsys. But Synopsys predicted the combination would accelerate revenue growth and swiftly begin contributing to higher earnings.

分析师说，一些 Synopsys 股东反对这项交易，部分原因是 Ansys 最近公布的收入增长率低于 Synopsys。但 Synopsys 预测，这一合并将加速收入增长，并迅速开始带来更高的收益。

CAE领域的商业模式确实是够呛，产品和服务模式设计都有优化空间。

update

本质上在工程研发的Y=F(X)的函数中，ANSYS想要替代物理世界的F。他的方式是把牛顿、麦克斯韦、傅里叶等人的数学表达式、和数学里面的有限元素法 编译到DLL里面。

理论上神经网络也可以提供这个F。

ANSYS活不下去的原因，这个大佬好像解释得很好。In 1999, Gerald Jay Sussman wrote the following:

计算机科学深陷困境。结构化设计是失败的。目前设计的系统既脆又脆弱。它们不容易适应新的情况。需求的微小变化就会导致结构和配置的巨大变化。在规定系统行为的程序中出现的微小错误，会导致预期行为出现巨大错误。事实上，当前的计算系统不合理地依赖于实现的正确性，而且无法轻易修改，以应对设计中的错误、规格中的错误或设计所针对的需求的不可避免的演变。(试想一下，如果你随意剪断计算机中的一根电线会发生什么！）这是一个结构性问题。这不是一个复杂性问题。它不会因为某种形式的模块化而得到解决。我们需要新思路。我们需要一套新的工程设计原则，用于有效构建灵活、稳健、可进化和高效的系统。
在任何重要系统的设计过程中，都会针对每个组件的每个细节层次提出许多实施计划。然而，在最终交付的系统中，这种计划的多样性却消失了，通常只采用和实施一个统一的计划。正如在生态系统中一样，传统工程设计过程中多样性的丧失会对稳健性造成严重后果。
决不能让这种脆弱和缺乏灵活性的情况继续下去。未来的系统必须既灵活又可靠。它们必须能够容忍错误，必须能够适应新的条件。要超越现有的问题，我们必须从根本上改变我们用来描述计算系统的语言的性质。我们必须开发能够将计算系统描述为冗余进程的合作组合的语言。

Computer Science is in deep trouble. Structured design is a failure. Systems, as currently engineered, are brittle and fragile. They cannot be easily adapted to new situations. Small changes in requirements entail large changes in the structure and configuration. Small errors in the programs that prescribe the behavior of the system can lead to large errors in the desired behavior. Indeed, current computational systems are unreasonably dependent on the correctness of the implementation, and they cannot be easily modified to account for errors in the design, errors in the specifications, or the inevitable evolution of the requirements for which the design was commissioned. (Just imagine what happens if you cut a random wire in your computer!) This problem is structural. This is not a complexity problem. It will not be solved by some form of modularity. We need new ideas. We need a new set of engineering principles that can be applied to effectively build flexible, robust, evolvable, and efficient systems.
In the design of any significant system there are many implementation plans proposed for every component at every level of detail. However, in the system that is finally delivered this diversity of plans is lost and usually only one unified plan is adopted and implemented. As in an ecological system, the loss of diversity in the traditional engineering process has serious consequences for robustness.
This fragility and inflexibility must not be allowed to continue. The systems of the future must be both flexible and reliable. They must be tolerant of bugs and must be adaptable to new conditions. To advance beyond the existing problems we must change, in a fundamental way, the nature of the language we use to describe computational systems. We must develop languages that prescribe the computational system as cooperating combinations of redundant processes.

wiki上ansys的收购史就是现实版的贪吃蛇。最后贪吃蛇被吃掉了。

20多年里，收购了35家CAE公司。组成一个奇怪的缝合兽。

It’s a Frankenstein’s monster of a software suite for numerical simulation comprising several tools that have been acquired over the years. It’s frightfully expensive and there’s no incentive to make it more usable as there’s limited competition.

ANSYS总是打不过就把对手买下来。

最后维持自己的难用史。

ANSYS is a well-established professional simulation suite and doesn't even really meet the usability threshold, in my opinion.

有人说他的可用性完全不及格。