2009 was quite a tumultuous year for the EDA industry. However, there are signs that there is some economic light at the end of the tunnel. Revenue improved on a sequential basis in the third quarter of 2009, ending the longest string of successive declines since at least 1997, according to the EDA Consortium (EDAC) trade group.

EDA revenue for the third quarter of last year totaled nearly $1.17 billion, up 3.8 percent compared to the second quarter of the year, according to EDAC's latest report. But revenue continued to decline on a year-to-year basis, down 7.2 percent compared to the third quarter of 2008. EDAC's four-quarter moving average also declined 13.1 percent.

EE Times / EDA DesignLine presents a discussion with EDA pundits Walden Rhines, EDAC chair and chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics Corp., Gary Smith, principal of Gary Smith EDA, and Joseph Borel, former executive vice president in central research and development at STMicroelectronics NV and now of the JB-R&D consulting company.

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