Key focus areas/trends for EDA in 2009

EDA Industry Outlook

Key focus areas/trends for EDA in 2009

These will likely be new design for manufacturing technologies, verification and verification IPs, and multicore processing support for EDA flows, says Jaswinder Ahuja of Cadence/ISA

Pradeep Chakraborty

Friday, December 26, 2008

BANGALORE, INDIA: Globally, the EDA industry has been among the hard hit segments within the semiconductor industry.

I caught up with Jaswinder Ahuja, Corporate Vice President and Managing Director, Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt. Ltd and Chairman, India Semiconductor Association (ISA), to find out more about the fortunes of the EDA industry, globally, and in India. Excerpts:

CIOL: How has the year 2008 been for the EDA industry? Globally, EDA has been struggling. What have been the chief reasons?

Jaswinder Ahuja: 2008 has been a challenging year, the global financial crisis has impacted several industries and the EDA industry was no exception.

Due to the overall downturn in the economy, companies are being more cautious and are delaying purchase decisions, a move that is impacting the overall EDA industry.

CIOL: How has the industry performed in India during 2008? What were the drivers for EDA in India this year?

JA: There are a few key drivers for Indian semiconductor industry. First, design centres have gained expertise and are now doing cutting-edge designs out of India. They have moved up the value chain from doing block-level design to increasingly owning up end-to-end design and design starts.

Second, we have seen that several Indian design services companies have made significant acquisitions, showing that their businesses have not just taken root but also flourished. MindTree Consulting’s acquisition of TES PV and Wipro’s acquisition of Oki's wireless chip design arm are cases in point.

The Indian EDA industry has been growing, and we will see more technology adoptions and proliferations in India design centers. Also, the rapidly growing local market is unfolding new opportunities.

CIOL: How do you see EDA industry going forward in 2009? What's the outlook going to be?

JA: Market pressures, design complexity are just some of the issues that design teams face today. Our customers would like to plan in the context of IP selection, run analysis around power, performance and cost perspectives. Design predictability will be a priority.

The key focus areas for the EDA industry will be new design for manufacturing technologies as designs move to advanced nodes; verification and verification IPs and multicore processing support for EDA flows as a result of increased integration.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is likely to gain traction as companies are compelled to consider flexible engagement models to access state-of-the art design environments that help design teams reduce risk and cost, yet increase time-to-productivity.

CIOL: There are reports of EDA folks venturing into solar. How is Cadence looking at this area?

JA: In a recent poll by ISA, to the question “Solar PV has potential in India”, almost 90 percent of the respondents replied Agree or Strongly Agree. With the worldwide focus on alternative energy systems, India has witnessed several companies announcing investments in PV segment. This is good news for the Indian semiconductor ecosystem.

Cadence has a broad portfolio of technologies that addresses the needs of different players in the ecosystem.

CIOL: What are the initiatives in low power that will come to the forefront in 2009?

JA: Power efficient design is gaining importance across the design chain and EDA companies will have to look closely at “green” technologies. Energy efficiency at the system and application level for wired and wireless products will be one of the focus areas.

Emerging technologies that allow applications and systems developers to evaluate how their programs use power both individually and in a dynamic, multi-application model of the end system will help expand the role of EDA into system-level design.

The Power Forward Initiative (PFI), an industry alliance comprising of companies across the semiconductor design chain will work toward a more systematic, integrated approach to low-power design.

CIOL: Lastly, what's your outlook for the global semiconductor industry in 2009?

JA: The impact of the financial crisis will see an increased demand for mid-range product technology as consumers shift spend toward ‘essential’, rather than ‘desirable’ electronic products. Semiconductor companies globally are focusing on their core strengths, consolidating and realigning resources. Across sectors, they will look for systems that marry functionality with cost efficiencies.

Growth for semiconductor companies will come from energy related and low-power technologies that are able to drive market share shifts.

©CIOL Bureau