Future of EDA: Usual suspect or silent hero for successful semiconductor business?

Abstract

During history of semiconductor development Computer-Aided Design developed into Electronic Design Automation. Point tools provided by CAD/EDA industry were selected by industrial design flows and integrated to make use of best-in class tools available for product development. This was a useful approach to target the classical focus segments for semiconductor design: area, verification and technology enabling. During the last years additional design parameters like power optimization have been introduced successfully into industrial design flows. There is still a need to improve tools addressing these technical design constraints within the foreseeable future.