Siemens Agrees to Buy Lauterbach, Maker of TRACE32 Debugging Tools

Siemens has signed an agreement to acquire Lauterbach, a German company that makes debugging and trace tools for embedded systems. 

Lauterbach is based in Hoehenkirchen, near Munich. It sells hardware-assisted debuggers and real-time trace tools for microprocessors and embedded CPU cores under the TRACE32 brand, and develops and builds them at its headquarters. It has more than 1,200 customers, mostly in automotive, semiconductors and telecommunications, and works with all the major chipmakers.

Siemens plans to put Lauterbach’s software debug and trace tools in the same workflow as its own hardware-assisted verification products. Engineers would then be able to find faults in both hardware and software before physical chips exist. Siemens says this should raise productivity, shorten the time to market and improve quality. 

Siemens links the deal to hardware and software development becoming more closely tied. It names AI, software-defined vehicles, the Internet of Things, multi-core architectures, cybersecurity and functional safety as the forces driving that change and sees semiconductors as a core vertical in its technology strategy.