There will, however, be a last-minute counterproposal on the table. Perhaps spurred by OpenAccess, Avanti Corp. has disclosed that it will open its Milkyway API to third-party EDA vendors.

A standard design-data API is regarded as a breakthrough that would let chip designers mix and match commercial, internal and academic tools. Unlike today's standard file formats, which require cumbersome translations, an API would let applications cooperate in shared memory.

Availability of a standard API may also expand the commercial EDA market, since many large companies hesitate to buy commercial tools because of the cost of integration. Moreover, Cadence's Genesis database itself will be available as a reference implementation, and may provide a standard design-tool infrastructure that users, universities and small EDA vendors can embrace. Key Cadence competitors like Synopsys, Avanti, Magma and Monterey are unlikely to make use of the Genesis database. But none of them, including Avanti, have ruled out supporting the Cadence API.

The OpenAccess Community carries a lot of clout. The effort was launched by Agere, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, LSI Logic, Motorola and STMicroelectronics, working under the auspices of the Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2). Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Simplex have since signed on as members.

At DAC Monday (June 18), the coalition will announce that the Cadence interface, dubbed the OpenAccess API, will be made available in the third quarter through a "community source" license at the www.OpenEDA.org Web site. A reference database implementation in binary form will also be provided at that time. Source code will follow at a time to be determined — an uncertainty that has apparently troubled a few members of the coalition.

"We are taking the first step along a long road," said Greg Spirakis, director of design technology at Intel Corp. and the unofficial spokesman for OpenAccess. "We are putting a model together that represents the first real attempt to achieve interoperability through an open API and, ultimately, an open database."

Standard requirement

"There's a strong conviction that tightly coupled design systems are absolutely required for future chip designs," said John Darringer, manager of system-level design at IBM Research. "That means tightly integrated applications operating incrementally in shared memory. And that requires a standard API."

With a common API and database available to EDA vendors, universities and internal CAD groups, attention can turn from tool integration to application development, said Terry Blanchard, EDA manager at Hewlett-Packard Co. "For the first time, we may see a common infrastructure that can accelerate the whole industry," he said.

Both Darringer and Blanchard revealed that their companies have often declined to buy, or even evaluate, commercial EDA tools because of the high costs of integration. If companies like IBM and HP start buying more commercial tools because of the OpenAccess API, it could have a profound impact on EDA industry revenues.

The primary value of a standard API, said Gary Smith, chief EDA analyst at Gartner Dataquest, will be to let design flows of large "power users" accommodate external and internal tools. The API is "obviously what the users want," he said, but it won't really make an impact until the next generation of IC implementation tools comes out in 2004.

Andy Graham, Si2 president, said that the OpenAccess Community decided to go with a commercial API in order to make adoption as rapid as possible. "Frankly, there wasn't a lot to choose from that met the community's criteria," Graham said. "We did approach other major EDA vendors, but Cadence responded early and with enthusiasm."

The Genesis database, however, is very new, and is used in only one recently announced product: Cadence's Integration Ensemble. But Cadence has stated its intent to build all future IC physical-design tools on Genesis.

The availability of the database could be a boon for small EDA companies, Graham said. "It can become a de facto environment for the industry to build around, and avert the need to reinvent the wheel." He said the community aims to publish an API specification "from the developer's point of view," and to provide a developer's kit including that specification and the binary reference database.

The API and database will be available not under an open-source license, but under what Graham called "community source." This essentially means there will be tighter control over revisions than is provided in most open-source environments. A two-person team consisting of architects from Cadence and IBM will recommend changes in the specification, and a 12-member team will review and approve them. This setup, said Graham, will allow the effort to move forward quickly.

The OpenAccess Community is still in a formative stage, and doesn't yet have a president or chairman. "We're still working on fundamentals, and we haven't gotten to more parliamentary duties," said Graham.

Dave de Maria, senior vice president for worldwide marketing at Cadence, said his company decided to offer its API and database because of strong user demand for interoperability. "We would like the whole industry to standardize on our database," he said, "but we're realistic in realizing that the people who probably won't do that immediately are our IC layout competitors."

Flirting with controversy

In a potentially controversial move, the source code for the Genesis database is being made available only to the OpenAccess Community founders. The idea, according to de Maria, is to work with large EDA users to make the existing database more modular, and to provide some extensions. These include multiprocessing support, a C++ API and more features for analog and mixed-signal design.

Once that process is completed, the source code for the database will be made available through Si2, but Cadence is declining to say when that will happen. "We're still working on road map logistics," said de Maria.

The unavailability of the source code drew a complaint from Greg DuFour, EDA-standards program manager at Mentor Graphics Corp. "We're disappointed that Cadence once again delayed delivery of the source code for the database," he said. "The source code is the ultimate specification, and it's hard to advance the committee's work without it."

Still, DuFour affirmed Mentor's support for OpenAccess — and its selection of the Genesis API. "We believe, provided it's truly open, that it benefits everyone," he said.

Simplex Solutions Inc. has joined OpenAccess and has announced that its Fire & Ice QX and VoltageStorm SoC products are already supporting the OpenAccess API at beta sites. "We want customers to have the free choice to use the best tools, and adapt them to the infrastructure they have. OpenAccess makes this easier," said Aki Fujimura, Simplex's president and chief operating officer.

Other large EDA vendors that have yet to join OpenAccess are not ecstatic about the choice of Genesis, but appear open to the possibility of supporting it.

Considered support

"We don't have the technical details on Genesis, and it's hard to say whether it's a good API or not," said Rich Goldman, vice president of strategic-market development at Synopsys Inc. To succeed, in his view, it's essential that the technology be freely available to everyone on an open-source basis.

Still, Goldman said Synopsys will consider supporting the API "if there are no issues with ownership and [if] it makes sense for our customers."

For its part, Monterey Design Systems Inc. is "wary" of the choice of Genesis, said Bill Alexander, vice president of marketing at Monterey. "This is a recently developed technology with no track record." But if it's truly open source, has the necessary structure to accelerate design productivity and Monterey's opinions will be heard, the company will support the OpenAccess initiative, he said.

"We will support any open, fully described standard API wholeheartedly," said Joe Hutt, vice president of technical sales at Magma Design Automation. He warned, though, that users must insist on buying compliant tools and not "break ranks" to pursue the best performance.

Avanti will support whatever standard API emerges, said Chi-Ping Hsu, a member of the executive staff for technology there. But despite OpenAccess' selection of Genesis, Avanti still believes its Milkyway API will be the ultimate choice, Hsu said.

"Our goal is to make the Milkyway database the standard in the EDA industry by allowing all third parties, including competitors and customers, to develop interfaces to it," said Hsu. He called Milkyway a "solid, established" database that has been tested with several applications.

Si2's Graham said that the OpenAccess coalition's choice of Genesis is a "done deal," but he acknowledged it may take a while for Cadence's competitors to accept it. "The trouble you can get into with these kinds of efforts is to overly state expectations," he said. "What we're trying to do is lay in a foundation and a community, such that Synopsys, Avanti and others can come along and use it and contribute. Over time, this is a positive move for everyone."