Turning the Downturn Upside Down

Many bemoan the gloom and doom of the present economic situation, and it is true that some have been really hurt by it. Much is being discussed about the current downturn and its effect on virtually every industry. At the same time, there is also discussion of the 'upside of a downturn', where companies are energized to focus and innovate at even higher levels to help drive the recovery and prepare for better times. Many customers I have met with recently say the same thing. Those that are able to continue to focus, to continue to invest, and continue to innovate, will use this downturn as a springboard to new post recession heights.

At Cadence we really appreciate and embrace the razor-sharp focus of the semiconductor design community. This drives us in turn to focus on the real core value of the functions that our solutions provide. I recently took the reins of a very talented team of engineers for implementation products, and the challenging times have pulled us all closer and revitalized the sense of urgency and hyper productive energy. In a single development cycle we have performed a major transformation of a huge element of the design automation process.  Previously unthinkable, the team has pulled it off. This is the foundation for our springboard.

In December we launched Multi-language OVM Verification IP for MIPI, the next-generation Spectre Accelerated Parallel Simulator, and the New Encounter Digital Implementation System (EDI System) and have gotten great customer response. User feedback has also been very positive on our novel approach to not only building users' awareness of what's new in the products, but also educating on the design challenges and techniques to overcome them.

Similarly, but on a much larger scale, we have re-invented Virtuoso with IC6.X in partnership with the field and customers, and the CP-enabled Low Power Solution has gotten remarkablecustomer production successes and is now on its way to launch CPF 1.1 with advanced low power IP reuse and macro modeling capabilities.

That bend in the curves that looks like a low point right now is actually the full loaded springboard, getting ready to propel us forward.

Watch us fly!

Chi-Ping Hsu
Sr. VP R&D, Implementation Group