To find growth again, the EDA industry needs to embrace new business models, expand its palette of products and go back to its roots in solving the technology problems of chip makers, said speakers focused on the startup world.

Panelists heaped criticism on top EDA companies for several shortcomings. One panelists called the practice of bundling products at all-you-can-eat pricing a "monopolistic strategy . . . it's a blocking tactic against the new guys," said Lucio Lanza, a veteran EDA executive and managing director of Lanza techVentures.

"This amounts to a cap that the largest companies are putting on the market which has become as flat as a pancake," Lanza said to a large crowd gathered at one corner of the DAC show floor.

DAC panel, from left: Kathryn Kranen of Jasper Designs, Jim Hogan; Lucio Lanza and SVB Alliant's Nick Pappas

New process nodes are coming on as fast as ever, but they are not ramping to use by mainstream chip designers nearly as fast, Lanza claimed, laying the blame at the feet of the EDA industry. "A lot of the methodology has been developed by in-house SoC designers," he added.

"People are holding on to their monopolistic formats too long. They are whipping dead horses," said Jim Hogan, another veteran EDA executive and industry investor.

Established companies are stuck in a business model of renewing annual subscriptions to existing tools, said Nick Pappas, a vice president of SVB Alliant, an investment banking firm. "Today's industry looks like the mortgage refinancing business," Pappas quipped.