BY SIMON DAVIDMANN Chief Executive Officer, Co-Design Automation Inc., Los Altos, Calif.

We are now in a semiconductor technology phase where the size of devices is such that a complete system may be placed on a single chip. More important, this system-on-chip (SoC) approach has become available not just to the high-end electronics market, but also to mainstream designers. This phenomenon has driven the usage of embedded processors and the corresponding embedded software into those segments, and this is the discontinuity that the industry now faces. I believe that the reality of the current industry condition is based partly on a short-term economic weathering. However, the EDA industry must learn to adapt to handle new design issues to avoid a more substantial hit. Industry surveys have shown that verification is a significant bottleneck, requiring a full 70 percent of the project cycle time to be effectively completed. Processors are now embedded in 50 percent of average designs, and Dataquest predicts that this will grow dramatically during the next few years.

The problem is that the general EDA industry is not keeping pace. This is bound to limit design and technology advancement across the electronics sector. However, we are seeing rapid developments that are specifically focused on SoC issues. Validating the latest devices, complete with embedded processors, while also minimizing the verification overhead is the task of next-generation simulation systems. Streamlining the design flow from a high level through to tapeout is the focus of another new breed of implementation tools.

The situation is the same as a few years ago when HDL-based design took over. Those companies that leverage the industry discontinuity, not to mention the economic turmoil, will come out on top in this new design era. New EDA companies are emerging that target changes in design, fueling a dramatic improvement in methodology and productivity across the electronics sector.

So, my EDA industry forecast is for sunnier times in the short term for companies that work with design methodology changes. Companies that can't embrace the change will find it easy to blame a poor economic climate.