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Innovating in system of systems: Lip Bu-Tan
There have been several innovations of innovations happening in the global technology industry. The IoT, mobility, cloud computing, etc., are creating opportunities for the system of systems, according to Lip-Bu Tan, president and CEO, Cadence Design Systems Inc.
Tan was delivering the main keynote. at the recently held CDNLive 2014 in Bangalore, India,
Some of the trends driving the global semiconductor market growth in the end markets include automotives at $24 billion, computers at $76 billion, industrial electronics at $14,1 billion, medical electronics at $12.5 billion, and mobile phones at $100 billion. In India, especially, a lot of fabless companies are said to be coming up.
The tablet is a system of systems. It has communications, navigation, recording and photography, etc. Even the automotive vehicle is a convincing example. Next, there is the IoT. There are said to be diverse needs for the IoT.
There are said to be several challenges for the system of systems. Some of these are more IP and software requirements, and more needs for low power and mixed signal. System design enablement requires system integration, packaging and board, etc.
Cadence has a comprehensive SoC IP solution. The mixed signal verification solution ensures functionality, reliability and performance. Cadence also introduced the Voltus-Fi custom power integrity solution in Shanghai the week before. Its Quantus QRC extraction solution gives up to 5X performance.
Next, the Jasper acquisition expands the Cadence development suite. Cadence also provides the FPGA-based prototyping with Palladium flow for software development.
Tan concluded that new technologies always require closer collaboration — from IP through manufacturing. Cadence is here to help designers innovate — from systems to silicon.
Tariffs will slow growth in domestic demand for PV systems: The Brattle Group
Recently, The Brattle Group came out with its report titled “The Employment Impacts of Proposed Tariffs on Chinese Manufactured Photovoltaic Cells and Modules”. Here are excerpts from the report.
At the request of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE), The Brattle Group has studied the employment impacts of a proposed trade restriction on Chinese-manufactured crystalline photovoltaic cells and modules.
This topic is timely, because the US Department of Commerce (DOC) is currently reviewing a petition that would lead to substantial tariffs on Chinese-produced photovoltaic cells and modules. Petitioners have requested tariffs up to 250 percent on Chinese-manufactured products in response to alleged government subsidies and below cost pricing.
In brief, we estimate that tariffs will slow the growth in domestic demand for photovoltaic systems by homeowners, commercial establishments and utilities, resulting in substantial job losses. We estimate jobs at risk under two tariff levels – 50 percent or 100 percent.
We find that a 50 percent tariff will shut the vast majority of Chinese imports out of the US market, and a 100 percent tariff will effectively block them altogether. We also estimate employment impacts accounting for two scenarios, a low scenario which assumes low demand elasticity and high supply elasticity, and a high scenario which reflects a high demand elasticity and a low supply elasticity. Read more…
Designing systems to thrive in disruptive trends!
Srini Rajam, CEO, Ittiam Systems presented the guest keynote at the CDNLive! 2011 in Bangalore, India, titled ‘Designing Systems to Thrive in Disruptive Trends’. According to him, key factors for design project success include scope definition, realistic targets, good estimation and right resources. Today, smart system design enables being a step ahead in the world of disruptive system demands.
The concergence decade saw an affordable convergence of media and functions. The world also moved from the PC in 2000 to the smartphone in 2010. There has also been a convergence of audio, video and communications. The SoC and system design require performance, quality and price to work in tandem.
In the imagination decade, we have come to expect electronics to do whatever we fancy. In the smart system design era, we have come to anticipate a future system that will also work perfectly today.
Today, we are in the world of IP video communication. First, everything is evolving. There have been advances in video technology, SoC and infrastructure. Technologies designed elsewhere are being brought in. There is a virtually infinite range in quality and price levels. The video communication system holds the key dynamics. The SoC, software and system have entered into a synergistic relationship.
For smart system design, there is a need to look at the big picture. Scaling down is easier than scaling up. Smart system is built to achieve efficiency in scale down. The reference platform is needed for the development roadmap.
For designing, the system may function as a module in other system. Also, critical components of the system may evolve outside. Parts of the system may also get replaced by the ecosystem. As for the SoC, there must be a roadmap enabling application software portability. There should be modular scaling with plug and play of IPs/components. Tools for hardware-software co-development must be available from the early stages.
All of this would enable you to being a step ahead in the world of disruptive system demands.
Embedded systems seminar focuses on India’s embedded might
This fourth seminar on embedded systems, organized recently in Bangalore by EDN Asia, Singapore, Reed Business, was further testament to India’s already proven embedded might.
Welcoming the delegates, Kirtimaya Varma, editor-in-chief, EDN Asia, noted that Bangalore continues to be a city of overwhelming importance for EDN Asia. “We believe that this city is well on its way of evolving from the electronics design hub of India to the electronics design hub of the world. We always look forward to this seminar as an opportunity for us to interact with the local design industry in India.
“Notwithstanding the severe recession, ISA-IDC estimates that the embedded software revenue is poised to grow from about $6 billion in 2008 to $7.3 billion in 2009. While most industrial segments are laying off staff, the embedded software workforce is projected to rise from about 126,000 in 2008 to 150,000 in 2009. These figures show the inherent strength of the embedded design industry in India.
“However, most of the embedded software activities in India are at the lower end of the value chain. But for the last few years large Indian companies are moving towards the higher end activities in specific domains. This is expected to expand the embedded software market. Besides, the growing consumer and automotive markets and increased expenditures in telecom and defense will also contribute towards the growth of embedded in the coming years.”
There were a series of presentations, led by V.R.Venkatesh, senior VP, head of product engineering services, Wipro Technologies. The other tracks were:
* Debug embedded systems with industry’s most advanced Mixed Signal Scopes (MSO) — Venkat Prasad, Agilent Technologies
* Small yet Highly Functional – Keeping Your System Cost Low with Embedded ICs — Lou Kai Chee, Fujitsu Microelectronics Asia Pte Ltd
* Highest Quality MCU Portfolio Drives your Ideas to Business — Ravi Kishore Ivaturi, Infineon Technologies
* Introducing nanoWatt XLP MCUs for eXtreme Low Power — Kanad S. Joshi, Microchip Technology Inc.
* Low Power Flash FPGA Technologies — Jijeesh M, Actel Corp.
* Embedded Processing with Xilinx — Akshat Jain, Xilinx
Having represented EDN Asia for quite a number of years in the past, I was extremely pleased to be part of this show. Another reason, Kirti Varma of EDN Asia and yours truly — our association goes back a really long time — starting from 1991 at Electronics For You, New Delhi, through to Global Sources and later, Reed Business!
I hope to add more information on some of the tracks, time permitting!
Cadence’s focus — systems, low power, enterprise verification, mixed signal and advanced nodes
I recently had the opportunity of meeting up with Nimish Modi, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Front-End Group, Cadence Design Systems, along with Rahul Arya, Marketing Director, Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt. Ltd.
Modi provided a perspective on how solutions from the EDA sector help the electronic design industry improve productivity, predictability and reliability of design processes, especially verification. Design verification is the process of ensuring that a chip design meets its specifications.
According to him, today’s product development ecosystem comprises of three driving forces — productivity, predictability and reliability. “We are clearly at the core of product development. We have a very strong breadth and depth. There is a layer of solutions we have integrated with our product offerings,” he added.
He highlighted that Cadence’s solutions consist of integrated point tools, as well as recommended use models. It also has a very strong services offering.
Focus on five key areas
Currently, Cadence is focusing on five key areas — systems, low power, enterprise verification, mixed signal and advanced nodes. “We have a solutions oriented approach across the board,” Modi said.
On systems, it is key to focus on gaining more productivity. Modi said: “This can be done by raising the level of abstraction. The technologies available to address ESL have been around for a while, each one addressing a piece of the puzzle. The need is there for seeing tremendous improvements in that. Here, Cadence’s C-to-Silicon Compiler comes in.”
“The other piece is — it has incremental synthesis capabilities. A third thing — it is connected to the downstream flow. This is the foundation of our systems strategy,” said Modi.
Coming to the systems design and verification strategy, the first component involves planning and management. “We have an enterprise manager,” he added. Cadence has been a leader in the hardware assisted verification with rich VIP/SpeedBridge portfolio. It has enabled a move to TLM driven design and verification flow. Cadence also delivers unique system power exploration, estimation and optimization flow. It provides unique hardware/software co-verification capabilities (Incisive Software eXtensions) as well.
Low power strategy
On Cadence’s low power strategy, Modi highlighted three components — implementation, verification and design. “The innovation was the ability to create a power format to capture the design intent. We are committed to providing flow operability as well. We want customers to make use of advanced power management techniques,” he added.
“We have the superior low power technology,” he claimed, referring to the Power Forward Initiative (PFI). “Look at technology — that is proven. The format is a means to the end. We are also working on providing more capabilities in the power exploration space. We are working under different aspects.
“You can do power analysis on the IP block; there’s C-to-Slicon, which has power as a function; multi-supply voltage will be a component of our synthesis solution. All of these vectors are driving the power exploration space. Seventy percent of chips’ power is determined at or before the RTL stage,” said Modi.
Cadence has a closed loop verification methodology. At each stage, you can go back and make sure you can be consistent with what’s there upfront.
Enterprise verification strategy
On enterprise verification, Cadence’s approach is plan-to-closure. Predictability — utilize executable plans and metrics that predict functional closure; productivity — effectively deploy methodolgy driven multispecialist flows. with VIP and multiproduct automation; and quality — reduce risk of functional bugs at tape-out at various project stages.
Modi added: “Our verification IP portfolio is also very critical. The depth of our portfolio is the broadest in the industry. In verfication, the actual TAM is growing. We are getting opportunities as well. Multi dimensions of enterprise verification are being taken care of by us.”
Interesting that all EDA companies have focused on verification! Why now and why not earlier? Modi said: “We’ve been in this area for a while. We have pioneered the new approaches. The goal is: how do you know it is good enough to hit the tapeout button? Our goal is to raise the confidence of customers.”
He added: “We are coming uo with a hybrid model. We are engaging with customers at this point of time. We came up with multi-language support in OVM. We have 30+ verification IP portfolios.”
Trends in complex SoCs
Today, it is largely a mixed signal world. Mixed signal IC revenue has been increasing faster than the rest of the industry. It is driven by applications, including wireless devices, consumer and DTV, and automotive.
Modi said: “There is a genuine need to support natively analog behavioral models in a digital centric verification environment. Mixed signal is a larger percentagre of area and effort.”
Coming down to advanced nodes, it is no surprise that Cadence definitely supports MCMM (multicorner and multimode). “It is part of our Encounter Digital Implementation System,” added Modi.