The increasing consumerization of the electronics market and the corresponding need to reduce costs is driving electronics makers to pack more functionality onto a single piece of silicon (or within a single package). This trend is leading to changes in traditional design environments, while also increasing the need for collaboration among multiple geographies, design groups, and design disciplines.
As a result, the typical design environment is increasing in complexity and cost. A recent study reveals that for every dollar the customer spends commercial design technology they spend more than a dollar on adopting and applying that technology to their designs and environments.
Software-as-a-Service Solutions for Semiconductor Design
To provide customers with optimal time-to-productivity, Cadence offers Hosted Design Solutions. These
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions combine industry-leading and production-proven technology, methodologies, services, collaboration, and IT infrastructure.
For more than seven years Cadence has deployed an advanced collaboration infrastructure to help its services clients leverage the breadth of Cadence expertise and decrease risk on their production designs. Now this service is combined with the optimal SaaS infrastructure for the semiconductor design industry.
The result is proven production design environments that provide business and engineering efficiencies by:
- Providing proven methodologies and use models along with leading EDA technologies
- Leveraging a highly reliable and secure infrastructure
- Reducing TCO for design environments and associated IT infrastructure
- Establishing an environment for intra- and inter-company collaboration
Outsourcing the elements of a production-grade design environment that are non-differentiating–yet critical–can address certain customer needs for reduced cost and risk. Cadence Hosted Design Solutions delivers these capabilities through proven resources and assets. They are available across many design disciplines, including;
- Custom IC Design
- Logic Design
- Physical Implementation
- Advanced Low-Power Design
- Block-level Functional Verification
- Chip-level Functional Verification
Adapting the SaaS Model to the Unique Needs of Semiconductor Design
Cadence Hosted Design Solutions apply the same concepts captured in the traditional SaaS application stack, and adapts them to the demanding data and processing requirements of leading-edge semiconductor design. As with software companies like Oracle and SAP, which have adapted the SaaS model for their offerings, leveraging this model for semiconductor design Cadence provides a new method to enable customers to achieve breakthroughs in efficiency, visibility, and capability.
Leveraging the Breadth of Cadence Expertise
As electronic design software becomes ever-more complex, the expertise required to seamlessly integrate end-to-end use models increasingly resides within the EDA companies. This means customers have to spend even more time to understand, integrate and apply that knowledge to their specific needs.
With Hosted Design Solutions, Cadence not only provides the infrastructure but also a fully integrated and proven environment that leverages knowledge from across the Cadence engineering, services and applications teams. The result is a robust and streamlined flow enabling customers to take advantage of all the latest design techniques and advanced product capabilities.
If a customer has unique requirements, or should a problem arise, the collaborative aspect of the infrastructure makes it easy for Cadence experts, regardless of location, to work together with the customer’s team.
Scalability, Stability, and Security
Cadence Hosted Design Solutions can easily scale to support customer needs – whether it is supporting a few designers in a single location or multiple large design teams distributed globally. A state-of-the-art IT and security infrastructure further ensures that the environment is always available, backed up, and protected from unauthorized access.