Design Automation

A Quest for Future Workers

A survey of universities in Japan and the United States shows that there is still a long way to go for future electrical engineers to get the HDL education they need.

by Mahendra Jain, Vickie Cole, and Kenji Yoshida

Who will be the electronics industry workers after the post-digital revolution? More important, will these future workers be equipped with the skills they need?

As VHDL International (VI) has watched the technological transformation of the electronics industry, we have been awed by the implications of the digital revolution. Already we are seeing signs of the merger of the existing television, telephone, and computer industries into one mega-industry. We believe the new industry will restructure itself into three components: networks, multimedia devices, and digitized content. Excluding the digitized content, this new industry has the potential to more than double in size in less than 10 years: from $1.5 trillion today to $3.5 trillion by 2005.

This is an exciting prospect. We will soon be seeing industrial and consumer products and applications that have yet to be dreamed of. This can only happen, however, if there are sufficient numbers of skilled engineers to make it happen.

With Verilog International's commitment to supporting electronic systems designers, semiconductor suppliers, EDA companies, and others in the industry, we sought to assess whether upcoming generations of electrical engineers have the tools and the training they will need to take part in a post-digital electronics industry. Specifically, we wanted to know the status of education on hardware description languages (HDLs) in the engineering schools at universities in the United States. To do this, we commissioned a survey among university electrical engineering departments. A coincident survey was conducted in Japan also.

Purposes of the study were to determine:

• The degree to which undergraduate BSEE students are exposed to various HDLs and a language-based design methodology.

• The amount of training available as well as the amount required.

• What source materials are used to teach HDLs.

• What barriers exist to increasing the knowledge of BSEE graduates in HDLs and language-based design methodology.

Conducting the survey The survey was developed by VHDL International and researchers from Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX), which is a member of VI and a leading proponent of VHDL. The survey was conducted by Decision Analyst Inc., a professional research organization (Arlington, TX). To administer the survey, telephone interviews were conducted with members of a total of 71 electrical engineering departments at American universities. These 71 universities represent 8,000 BSEE graduates, which is 49 percent of the total BSEE graduating class of 1993.

In Japan, the survey was administered by Toshiba Corp. , which is a member of VI, and with the cooperation of the Electronic Industries Association of Japan and Japanese academic societies. The surveyors sent a questionnaire to approximately 150 universities by e-mail or fax, and 32 universities responded. These 32 universities in Japan represent about 1600 BSEE graduates, which is approximately 20 percent of the total.

Interviewers screened the respondents to determine who would be the person best able to talk about hardware description language training throughout the entire EE curriculum at his or her university. Most had one of the following titles:

• Department chair.

• Associate chair.

• Professor.

• Associate professor.

In the United States, we conducted the interviews using a CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing) program during the period from November 7 to December 5, 1994. In Japan, interviewers conducted their research via e-mail and phone calls.

What we found Overall, undergraduate BSEE students appear to receive significant training in Unix/C programming environments, but very little training in specific HDLs such as VHDL or Verilog (see Figure 1). At many universities, there is no VHDL or Verilog training available to BSEE graduates. Our questions yielded surprising numbers:

• Forty-four percent in the U.S. and 84 percent in Japan have no training on or use of VHDL in any undergraduate EE courses.

• Forty-five percent in the U.S. and 63 percent in Japan have no faculty members who can teach VHDL.

• Forty-one percent in the U.S. and 65 percent in Japan have no graduating EE seniors with a working knowledge of VHDL.

Figure 1. Statistics on hardware description language training in American and Japanese universities are on the whole fairly similar.

Familiarity with VHDL capabilities and support tools: We found that more than half of the American respondents and about 40 percent of the Japanese respondents indicated they were at least somewhat familiar with VHDL's capabilities in abstraction levels such as design for ASICs, systems, FPGAs, or custom ICs. Similarly, about two-thirds of the American respondents and less than half of the Japanese respondents were at least somewhat familiar with VHDL's capabilities in portions of the design process such as digital simulation, logic synthesis, and system level modeling. Fewer respondents (34 percent) were at least moderately familiar with analog or mixed-signal simulation.

VHDL-specific textbooks and EDA software In the U.S., about one in four universities said it uses VHDL-specific textbooks. This is about the same number that uses EDA software. In Japan, however, only one in 10 universities said it uses VHDL-specific textbooks and EDA software for VHDL training.

Both Japanese and American respondents indicated that the reasons for choosing a particular EDA software product were product performance and cost or other assistance from the vendor (e.g. it was free, a good price, or they received some other company support).

Figure 2. Respondents at universities in the United States indicated several barriers to VHDL training in their universities.

Training barriers Those surveyed indicated several barriers to increasing VHDL training. Primary barriers reported by both US and Japanese universities seem to be limited resources (e.g. software and support needs, hardware or equipment needs, or budget limitations), limited curriculum hours, limited time available for training, and an actual lack of perceived need.

Primary ways that have been suggested for companies to help increase the amount of VHDL training were to provide resource assistance (such as free or discounted software, access to tools, lower cost for site licenses, free training, support, or free or discounted equipment), and to communicate the importance of VHDL training to faculty members, faculty boards, and students.

Figure 3. Respondents of Japanese universities provided a list of barriers to VHDL training.

Making a difference It became clear to us that there is a significant opportunity­and significant need­to increase the amount of VHDL training among undergraduate EE students at major universities.

Techniques and methodologies used to design electronic products are advancing rapidly. More people are using language-based design and automated synthesis to keep up with these changes. As the industry focuses more and more on design reuse, designer productivity, reduced cycle time, and cost and technology independence, language-based design and automated synthesis will become even more critical to success following the digital revolution.

Industry pundits believe the half-life of electrical engineering knowledge is only five years. It is therefore crucial to give new BSEE graduates­and the companies for whom they work­a running start by getting them to be thoroughly versed in the knowledge and techniques driving the industry. After all, 20 years ago, most companies did not see computer programming know-how as a selection criterion for an electrical engineer new-hire; today it is a standard requirement. In the same way, knowledge of VHDL will be a basic requirement for incoming engineers in the near future.

As we thought about the barriers to increasing VHDL training reported by our respondents (see Figures 2 and 3), we saw three major concerns that VHDL International could begin to address.

The number-one barrier mentioned was the lack of resources such as equipment, tools, support, or even funding. Here, VHDL International member companies can be of material assistance by actually donating, or at least discounting, those necessary resources. Several EDA vendors have already begun to do this, providing a model for other companies.

The second and third most-mentioned barriers were "convincing faculty of need" and "no room in the curriculum." These two problems go hand-in-hand. That is, as faculty members become convinced there is a need for a new course, they modify the curriculum to accommodate it.

VHDL International is committing itself to making a difference.

We have undertaken a program to communicate with the key faculty members of the top engineering universities in the United States and in Japan regarding the future, and the capabilities of VHDL. Our communication will begin with information about language-based design, VHDL, and available resources (including textbooks, VHDL simulators, and other assistance). In addition, individual VHDL International members and their company associates will establish contact with selected universities to render assistance in any way possible. Since many of our members already have a working relationship with one or more universities, this will be an extension of their on-going support programs.

We are optimistic that with increased awareness about VHDL and language-based design, and with access to increased support and resources, universities will become a positive force in equipping the electrical engineers of tomorrow with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the digital age.

To obtain a copy of the 1994 VHDL University Usage Survey Report, or more information about VHDL International, please contact Mahendra Jain at (408) 492-9806.

Mahendra Jain is the executive director of VHDL International, and director of ASIC vendor program for Compass Design Automation (San Jose, CA). Vickie Cole is manager of market research (strategic programs) for Texas Instruments. Kenji Yoshida, Ph.D. is a senior fellow for the semiconductor group of Toshiba Corp. and a member of the board of directors of VHDL International.

To voice an opinion on this or any Integrated System Design article, please e-mail your message to: michael@asic.com.

integrated system design  June 1995