I was recently looking for building a startup with IC design capability, and I approached a few fabs. One of them (a Korean one which I don't want to reveal) told me that they support a low cost EDA software called Empyrean.
I took a look into this software, and the feature set and testimonies are promising. It was used by iWatt and MPS to design some of their chips.
I just approached Empyrean, but have not yet gotten a demo license, so I don't know how it looks. From a video I found online, the layout/schematic editors seem like fairly well made Virtuoso clones, but I don't know how well the algorithms are behind the scene.
Has anyone used this tool or has any information about it?
http://www.empyrean.com.cn/_english/