The electronic design industry is continually searching for new ways to break down barriers and develop improved methods to build tomorrow's products. Anyone who needs a reminder of the advances electronics has made over the past several years should look at today's cell phone and remember yesterday's portable telephone.

But the technologies that have brought us these great devices are also producing headaches for today's design teams. Rapid evolution of technology and dramatic increases in complexity are changing the landscape of our industry. The greatest challenges we face involve the convergence of design processes driven by the proliferation of system-on-a-chip (SoC) and mixed-signal SoC devices.

In the coming years, it will be virtually impossible to design highly integrated devices without removing the barriers between today's four distinct design domains—embedded software, digital logic, analog circuit, and printed circuit board (PCB) design. Within these four design domains, we now confront three major areas of convergence:

• Hardware-Software Convergence
  As manifested in SoC designs, hardware-software convergence presents difficult design tradeoffs between hardware and software interactions. Software now dominates SoC design—electronics companies today spend more time designing software than hardware—and designers must find ways to maximize intellectual property reuse and maintain consistently accurate models throughout the design process. Decisions made early in the design process can have enormous implications on the success and profitability of a project.
  
  
• Digital-Analog Convergence
  The convergence of digital and analog presents challenges in the fast-growing realm of mixed-signal IC design. The percentage of mixed-signal ICs is expected to rise from 20 to nearly 75 percent in the next five years. Designers must be prepared to make strategic return-on-investment decisions, including the amount of analog circuitry to embed. While there are many tools for digital design and analog design, few are useful in both of these distinct design communities.
  
  
• Silicon-Package-Board Convergence
  PCB design technologies have undergone a major transformation, from essentially static to as innovative as those applied to IC design. Custom packaging is the new standard, with analysts predicting custom IC packages will triple to nearly 18 billion units by 2005. System-level integration, faster chips, mixed-signal devices and continuing miniaturization are among the PCB convergence issues expected to have a tremendous impact on our industry.

Convergence requires that we break down these barriers between hardware-software, digital-analog, and silicon-package-board. Of course, designers can—at least in theory—overcome these obstacles using traditional design methods. But those methods are prohibitively slow for companies that recognize the importance of moving their products to market quickly.

In an age when time-to-market can mean the difference between success and failure, the challenge of convergence requires that we address complex designs in a new way. We must embrace a vision of design chain management that removes the walls between our internal technology development and that of our technology partners—both customers and suppliers.

We all have a role to play in this. Engineers are, of course, on the front lines. They must continue educating themselves on the latest advances in methodologies. But, like any carpenter will tell you, they need the right tools to maximize job efficiency and ensure success. Today's designers are looking to standardize their toolsets by partnering with fewer electronics design vendors—vendors that can provide complete, integrated solutions.

The pressure is on electronic design vendors to create these tools. The ball is in our court, and we have our work cut out for us.

The good news is that we are stepping up to the plate. The most successful electronic design companies are focused on integrated solutions that break down the convergence barriers. We still have a long way to go, but we've made a respectable start. For instance:

• In the realm of hardware-software convergence, available solutions include a co-verification environment for creating mixed-signal SoCs and co-verifying entire systems, as well as emulation and acceleration products that provide efficient hardware-software co-verification prior to silicon. In addition, designers have access to a rich set of application-specific platforms and hardware and software IP for a wide range of applications.
  
  
• For digital-analog convergence, there are tools that unify the digital IC implementation path and the analog-mixed-signal implementation path. Long-term projects and industry initiatives bring these worlds together. Design flows must be integrated and industry-standard interoperability platforms for mixed-signal SoCs are being developed.
  
  
• In the world of PCB design, engineers now have access to solutions that provide electrical analysis and physical design from silicon through its package to PCB through another IC's package and to its silicon.

Electronic design companies are increasingly looking externally for cooperation, enlisting other vendors—sometimes even competitors—as partners to provide integrated solutions that will break down convergence barriers. These programs emphasize sharing and integrating solutions.

Of course, our efforts are not entirely altruistic; we realize that if we don't provide the tools that designers need—tools that easily integrate with one another throughout the design chain and tackle convergence issues—then our competitors will.

It is simple supply and demand: Designers are demanding these tools, and electronic design vendors—having heard the message loud and clear—are working feverishly to supply them.

So, as we look ahead to the next five years, expect to see remarkable new applications that take advantage of design convergence. And rest assured that electronic design vendors will provide the tools, services, and infrastructure to help make it happen.

About the Author Ray Bingham is the president and chief executive officer of Cadence Design Systems. Prior to becoming CEO, Bingham served as the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) from 1993 until April of 1999. Under Bingham's leadership, Cadence successfully developed the design and methodology service business, further enhancing the productivity and profitability of Cadence customers. One of Bingham's goals for Cadence is to establish strategic partnerships with other electronics partners to develop new solutions for the design of Integrated Circuits and Systems. Bingham received a BS degree in economics from Weber State University and holds an MS degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School.