Panel: Executive Perspective and Vision of the Future of EDA

As design complexity continues to grow, engineering teams have become increasingly reliant on sophisticated electronic design automation (EDA) tools and technology. Unlike the past, much of this technology comes from commercial suppliers. Indeed, many electronics manufacturers are wholly dependent on commercial vendors. Are these suppliers vendors capable of keeping pace with the market's demands, especially as electronics manufacturers push deeper and deeper into the realm of submicron design? Furthermore, with interoperability standards still badly lagging the needs of most users, design teams find themselves forced to rely on only a few vendors, or perhaps even a single vendor, for their design automation requirements. At the same time, engineering teams are recognizing that the number of tools needed to implement the impending generation of designs requires a range of tools and technologies from a myriad of suppliers. How do major EDA vendors and niche EDA suppliers intend to address this growing problem? What is their vision for the future of EDA technology? How do niche suppliers see themselves co-existing with larger suppliers in the face of the dynamic changes that are taking place in the industry? This panel, which consists of executives from several of the larger EDA companies together with executives from start-up niche suppliers, will address these and other questions. Specifically, panelists will be requested to define their vision of the future directions of EDA technology, as well as their views on how the EDA industry will evolve during the next five years.