Moving an Ecosystem

Recently, a colleague here at Cadence created the image of an ecosystem, whose existence was necessary to sustain the ability to take custom design into new realms of ever increasingly small and complex technologies.  He of course was referring to Virtuoso.

He asserted that “…that it takes a village” to create custom analog IC’s as well. A “village” or perhaps better labeled “ecosystem”, is due to the very specific design methodologies that are common with custom design engineers.

But what happens when it comes time to move the ecosystem to the next level that brings new technology and a new reference flow to the custom IC designer’s realm.  It has an impact on the whole ecosystem.  It requires thought and consideration to insure that the move can be well executed. 

The plan you formulate will vary depending on the design methodology your CAD team has implemented. Lessons learned from our experiences are that every situation is different and yet they are nearly all similar in a fashion.

The time will come for you to look at moving that ecosystem to gain functionality, to eliminate data flow bottlenecks, and ultimately gain or optimize productivity for your design team. You should step back and consider what it will take to get future designs out the door. Those future factors will include evolving process nodes and their requirements, design complexities and new capabilities, design platform interoperability requirements, design cycle times and so on.  When you begin to think about this, call, we’ll bring our experiences and we’ll be ready to help.

How do you envision moving your design ecosystem to keep abreast of the market’s needs? If you have moved your ecosystem, what have been your experiences?

In the coming weeks my colleagues and I will keep the conversation going by thinking about different aspects of moving an ecosystem.  Stay tuned…