Will EDA360 help catch up with hardware/software codesign challenges?
1 min read
It's nearly a year since Cadence launched its EDA360 initiative, described at the time as a 'new vision' for the eda world. EDA360 was created as a way to expand the eda market beyond its traditional boundaries, growing it from today's $5billion a year to what Cadence's chief marketing officer John Bruggeman called a 'crazy growth' market worth $25bn a year. Big goals.
Celebrating the anniversary, if that's the right word, Cadence has unveiled a suite of hardware/software codesign tools as part of its 'system realisation' effort.
Hardware/software codesign isn't a new topic for eda companies, so why the fuss? It's mainly because the software element of SoC design has grown disproportionately. Today, software developers need to get their hands on hardware – or virtual representations of hardware – as soon as possible if the projects are to meet their ambitious goals.
And the price of failure is high. With market windows narrowing, missing the deadline could cost a company many millions of dollars.
But codesign is also something of a moving target; no sooner have the eda companies made some progress towards meeting their goals than the target leaps ahead again. And the emphasis has changed from board level design to SoC based platforms. It's no surprise the goalposts keep moving.
Integration is, therefore, part of the answer and Cadence is right in wanting to make its software 'open, scalable and connected', because one company will not – probably cannot – supply everything. This is the 'collaborative ecosystem' called for in EDA360.
But it doesn't need a 'new vision' to provide users with the right tools for the job and to ensure those tools work together seamlessly.
