Mentor bullish on India despite global challenges

EDA

Mentor bullish on India despite global challenges

EDA always does best when it delivers new technology, says Joseph Sawicki, vice president & GM, Design to Silicon Division, Mentor Graphics

Pradeep Chakraborty

Monday, September 22, 2008

BANGALORE, INDIA: The EDA industry, along with the global semiconductor industry, has not had a smooth ride this year, so far. However, this situation has only made both the industries work harder toward restoring some recovery.

Joseph Sawicki, vice president & GM, Design to Silicon Division, Mentor Graphics Corp.

EDA firms, although under some fire this year, have held on firm and remain bullish on India, especially. It is no surprise that despite pretty challenging global semiconductor and EDA scenarios, Mentor Graphics also has a similar outlook.

I met up with Joseph Sawicki, vice president & GM, Design to Silicon Division, Mentor Graphics Corp., during the recently held EDA Tech Forum and discussed a range of issues, such as the EDA industry, Mentor's focus on India, and low-power design challenges.

According to Sawicki, Mentor Graphics is very optimistic about semiconductors and electronics, especially in India. The EDA industry is currently having a pretty challenging environment. The recession in 2002 was the deepest in its history.

"We (the EDA industry) haven't had the growth rates we would like. However, we have done better. We have re-invented Mentor," says Sawicki. "We have now invested more in back-and-route ICs, which is about 40 percent of our revenue. Our product portfolio is the youngest within the company." He adds that the recession has been more in semiconductors. However, take out memory, and the scenario changes.

The drive of the semiconductor industry toward smaller and smaller features sizes requires more sophisticated correction methods to guarantee the final tolerances for the etched features in both wafer manufacturing and mask making.

EDA growth likely to be flat this year?
Commenting on EDA's growth, Sawicki, adds that the growth will be flat in 2008. Interestingly, the growth rate was 10 percent during the last two years. He notes: "EDA always does best when it delivers new technology. There are two reasons for this. One is, on the manufacturing side of things. "The extra results will be completely delivered by the software." The other reason is that the aspects of manufacturing power and manageability will assume great importance. "Finally, the ESL space also provides the potential for growth. It also brings out a whole new design capability," he notes.

Given the pretty tight global semiconductor scenario, Mentor is also looking at other markets outside semiconductors, especially automotive. Sawicki adds that this quarter, 20 percent of Mentor's business has been from the automotive segment.

There have been several global initiatives aimed at consolidation in the recent past. Sawicki says: "Consolidation should not be looked at as a goal. We also do acquisitions in the technology space. It augments a strong position."

So what are some of the other challenges facing the EDA industry? Sawicki lists those as the economics of the industry itself, especially the design and verification costs.

On low power design, Sawicki agrees that there has been a transition of electronics from the US to Asia. "You have got to handle far lower power downward. We can reduce leakage current by 20-30 percent. Looking forward, how do you tie in ESL with physical design? When doing ESL, you can do architectural exploration. I will have my ESL to drive the place-and-route tool. I can get fast execution as well as low leakage power."

He advises that India has the ability to go beyond the innovation that has been happening.

Mentor in India
Mentor Graphics has three sites in India. It has R&D centers in Hyderabad and Noida, near New Delhi, and a sales and support office in Bangalore. The Hyderabad R&D center handles system design, while the Noida R&D center takes care of the front-end side, such as functional verification products.

Raghu Panicker, sales director, India, Mentor Graphics, says that the company has been very bullish on India. "We do not see any lull anywhere. Lot of design starts are happening here, in India," he adds.

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