Slowly, the industry is becoming vertical. Where once semiconductor companies designed chips for use by customers, we’re beginning to see the rise of the system company, which designs its own chips. Apple is the obvious example, but Samsung is another name you could add to the list. Similarly, you could argue that Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP (and Freescale, in effect) is creating another vertical systems company, although Qualcomm/NXP isn’t building cars – at least, not yet. In general, these companies are defining software for their products, then designing a chip for that software to run on.
It’s not just about hardware either. The move by Siemens to acquire Mentor Graphics looks to be a significant element in the creation of a vertical software company, capable of addressing product development from designing chips, managing the manufacturing process, testing products as they go out of the door and then managing them in the field.
We’ve also seen significant development in the autonomous vehicle – a system on wheels. The recent news that Apple has admitted working on some form of driverless vehicle can only add to the momentum. Now, many industry watchers think that true autonomous vehicles – those that meet level five requirements – may be on the road as early as 2025.
Meanwhile, even a couple of years ago, most would have dismissed the suggestion that only two independent EDA companies would remain at the end of 2016. Yet that’s where we are. Traditionally, EDA companies were all about design and verification of chips. Today, it’s a broader approach, with IP, acceleration technology and, to some extent, hardware becoming significant elements of their business. And as a Cadence executive told a recent meeting, a lot of what it now does is to help system companies to develop chips – even if they have never done it before.
“We’re hiring those with safety and security knowledge to help companies make the right architectural decisions,” he said. “It’s critical we understand things from the system perspective.”
