DFM—Don't care or competitive weapon?

The external specifications of an IC (functions, clock rate, power consumption, etc.) determine the competitiveness of a product. To be successful and profitable in the IC business, designers need to ldquoout-designrdquo their competitors. Usually, Design-For-Manufacturing (DFM) is discussed as a yield improvement strategy, but what is the value of DFM from a competitive point of view? Can DFM gives designers a competitive lever by helping them decide how far to push a design without creating a manufacturing disaster? Can DFM be used to optimize designs rather than just identify hot spots? This panel will explore these and other questions such as: Signoff as a business decision-avoiding disaster while gaining competitive advantage, Rules vs. modeling...style or substance? Do RDRs help or hinder competitive advantage? Can DFM help ensure a parametric yield envelop this is competitive? Design-to-Fab flow as a total quality management process.