We are seeing more design engineering functions moving toward web-based operation. Some of the big companies like Fujitsu Microelectronics(San Jose, CA) and Motorola (Austin, TX) are developing their own infrastructures for design collaboration and reuse by creating intranets containing repositories and standard process flows. The intranets depend on standardized, common tools and libraries of cores and elementary functions that are accessed by the designer. The designer works from local versions of the repositories on tools residing on the local server. The local data sets are replicated as needed to minimize the amount of data transfers to and from the master database. This first phase of Internet-enabled design still requires local tools and servers. The data sets for the libraries are only local when active; otherwise they are maintained in the master repository.

A few years ago, the first actual mode of web-based design offered buyers the opportunity to try, purchase, and receive a version of the tools. In this mode, the buyer often has a chance to try out the tool by downloading the software and getting a function-limited version. After a trial period, the user can purchase a software key from the vendor that enables a full functioning tool. This mode of business enables a different sales and delivery channel for EDA tools, but still depends on the user for local storage and processing. The use of the web for sales, delivery, and support is a viable one for the users and the sellers.

Now the next wave of tools and services is commencing. A number of start-ups and some of the established companies are beginning to offer design tools on a shared basis. You send in your design to the web site and get back results the next day. So far, the sites focus on smaller designs for FPGAs, but other types of tools will become available as more companies jump on the Internet bandwagon. A wide variety of business models are emerging to support this new design process. Some companies are charging on a per use or hourly basis and basically acting as the remote host for the tools. Some companies are creating novel models for business, but may not be making any money in the process. Quicklogic (Sunnyvale, CA) lets you submit the design to its web site, then returns the simulation results to you, and will let you request a copy of the FPGA to be delivered in a few days, all for free. Obviously, as one of the leaders in web-enabled design technologies, they plan to make their money the old-fashioned way, by selling you a lot of FPGAs.

As web-based design becomes more entrenched in the design community, one of the concerns for the designers is security. The data transport security function can be handled by well-known mechanisms like encryption and access control, giving a sense of relative data integrity. Yet, the recent hacker attacks on the big web sites like Yahoo and AOL illustrate the potential disruptive effects interrupted access to web content can have on people's lives. Clearly, issues such as firewall integrity and data security are valid concerns.

This aspect of electronic terrorism is not as troublesome as a hacker getting into and corrupting the database, but is an indication that network security is not just a simple prospect of adding in a security module to the server. The big web sites have dedicated people working on ensuring constant accessibility, so a site with only a small staff, like a single network administrator, would take a very long time to get back on-line. If someone can disrupt services for a day at a time, the costs of the interruptions may be much higher than the cost of a few standard licenses for the standard tools. As long as the transport vehicle, the Internet, has the potential for data loss or runs the risk of becoming inaccessible, the web-based design paradigm will not be very useful for much other than fairly small designs that are not mission or schedule critical.