2010 offers challenges and opportunities

BANGALORE, INDIA: While the global economy is heading towards a recovery after the worst of recession that the world has witnessed in the recent times, 2010 offers greater challenges and opportunities for the semiconductor and EDA industries, said Jaswinder Ahuja, corporate vice president and managing director, Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt. Ltd.

“2009 was a difficult year for the entire global economy, and electronics, semiconductor and EDA industries suffered as a consequence,” he observed. “Semiconductor companies were cautious and delayed purchase decisions. In an effort to save costs, they focused on their core strengths, consolidating and realigning resources to complement existing product lines. They prioritized capital efficiency, and they are looking for help in containing the costs of both hardware and software development.”

Investment into manufacturing capacity expansion globally got deferred with the focus shifting to utilization of existing capacity, he said. The need for business optimization gave a fillip to models like Software as a Service for electronic design, whose flexible engagement models to access state-of-the art design environments helped design teams reduce risk and cost while increasing productivity.

Convergence

The increased convergence between the mobile and computing spaces as demonstrated by the growing demand for mobile computing devices like Smartbooks, Netbooks, PDAs/ SmartPhones etc caused some global semiconductor players that traditionally focused on devices for one segment to explore profitable market adjacencies, Ahuja pointed out.

“As we look ahead to 2010 and beyond, we must learn to thrive in an increasingly globalized world and in a collaborative yet competitive ecosystem. EDA providers and semiconductor companies must collaborate to reduce the escalating cost of high-quality design and remove productivity bottlenecks, and work together to bring the semiconductor industry out of the doldrums,” he added.

In his view, collaboration will continue to accelerate the worldwide semiconductor industry. “The Common Platform, which brought together competitors including IBM, Chartered, and Samsung to share the costs of next-generation process technology, is one example,” Ahuja pointed out. “Deep, pro-active collaborations between EDA vendors and semiconductor providers have become crucial.”

He said, in 2009, Cadence announced collaborations on advanced process node design with ARM, TSMC, SMIC, Global Foundries, UMC, IBM, Common Platform, and other partners.

In terms of EDA, he said, providers must not only help customers reduce design and verification costs and solve technology problems, but must also help them differentiate themselves from competitors, and collaborate with partners on a worldwide basis. To do this, the EDA industry must focus on integrated solutions and close partnerships rather than simply selling point tools.

Challenges

Time-to-market pressures and design complexity are critical challenges that design teams face today. Design teams want to “get it right” the first time, and improve the predictability of design process.

“EDA will have to sharpen the focus on making the Verification process cost effective and focus not only on design but on IP integration so that design predictability can be ensured for customers at optimum costs. Design for manufacturing (DFM) technologies including extremely accurate modeling solutions for both mask-making and manufacturing to avoid expensive silicon re-spins will be another focus area,” he said.

End consumers are driving our customers to incorporate more functionality into the products. This demand for new functionality is driving both the importance and complexity increase in mixed signal and RF (radio frequency) design.

“As our customers face significant cost pressure, outsourcing certain elements of a production-grade design environment can address certain customer needs for reduced cost and risk. As a result software as a service will continue to gain traction in 2010,” he added.

As designs migrate to sub-90nm process nodes, Ahuja said, power management will be an imperative across the entire design and manufacturing chain.

Specific to India, a growing consumer base with increasing disposable income presents the opportunity for semiconductor companies to develop hybrid products in telecom, wireless and medical applications, for the domestic market and potentially other emerging markets.

“From solar-powered LED lanterns, digital inverters, hand-held medical diagnostics for rural customers, we see this trend growing; we could evolve into a systems design hub in the future,” concluded Ahuja.