As many of my customers mentioned and no surprise, 2009 was a tough year. Regardless though, designs continued to get pumped out the door by aggressive design teams, putting products in eager customer hands. I constantly get mesmerized by the number of people who are buying iPhones, including co-workers.
Here are just a few highlights from the digitial perspective for 2009 (in no particular order):
- ECOs continue to be a priority. For all of 2009, Conformal ECO was being used almost everywhere. ECO automation has become a necessary option for the ASIC flow.
- Low Power design and verification - getting more mainstream, seems like everyone is at least learning (even if they aren't using it immediately). No one wants to be left behind for LP.
- Front End Digital Design Community Forum -- We held this special R&D event again in November. Lots of good customer feedback, I look forward to this customer event in 2010.
- Early Chip Planning - starting the decision making pre-RTL - automation in this area gathered quite a large interest, according to my worldwide travels to different customers.
- C-to-Silicon technology (new higher level abstract stuff) continues its momentum. I had a chat with one of my big customers who said C was going to be a big part of their strategy soon.
- Synthesis continues to evolve, with more intelligence put into the flow up front with respect to physical implications.
And that's it in a nutshell for 2009 from my view as an engineer working day-to-day with many customers
Best wishes to you all and have a great happy New Year!
Kenneth Chang
Engineering Manager, CPS Division