Twitter-like Growth For Verification's Trailblazers? (a/k/a A Trailblazer hat tip to new CMO John B.)

I'm not proud to admit that I reacted with envy to the news that Twitter just received a $1 billion valuation.  This story inspired further chatter claiming that if Twitter plays their cards right, they could achieve a $5 billion valuation before long.  That's right: this fresh new internet combination of CB Radio, bad-but-fun TV, and primary source news, which barely existed even 1 year ago, could soon be worth more than all of today's EDA industry.

Sadly, EDA veterans have heard such value comparisons before.  For starters, at several EDAC events I've heard industry analyst Jay Vleeschhouwer compare all of EDA to the market cap of Adobe, while simultaneously wondering how this can be given EDA's critical role in our electronically driven world.  In this post to EDN's EDA Graffiti, our new CMO John Bruggeman (John B.) made the same point, observing that "the super complex, increasingly powerful, application-rich chips that are required in every device that is produced today CANNOT be developed without EDA tools."

Of course John B. made this observation in the context of initiative, not lament, as he took the added step of previewing his ideas to provide value by minimizing our customers' risks through simplifying IP integration, and envisioning how "hardware and software teams will be managed using executable specifications and metrics that bring more predictability to schedules".

Sound familiar?  If you are a Specmaniac or other form of "Trailblazer", this should be music to your ears given its alignment with what you have been telling us about your verification planning, management, and execution pain.  In short, in case it wasn't obvious before John B. came on board, this pain -- and need for vendor and customer to closely collaborate on the prospective solutions -- are clearly recognized at Cadence from both the top-down and bottom-up.  To put an even finer point on it: the need for metric driven verification tools, methodologies, partnerships, and ongoing innovation(s) that many of you have teamed up with us on since the creation of "NCSim" and Specman are also recognized in John's post as follows:

"I spent the last five years in embedded software going through a very similar industry transformation. I know from experience what a shift to an integration model looks like. Similar to embedded software, a community of experts in the EDA industry is forming and actively gaining momentum. They can’t be stopped and they won’t be ignored. They’re driven by fundamental economic forces. This EDA community is quickly developing a system integration model that can be broadly used and reused by the entire industry."

Again, I assert that in the verification segment of EDA, Specmaniacs and other Trailblazers are the "community of experts" that John B. is referring to (since by definition Trailblazers "can’t be stopped"! ;-)  As such, Team Specman, the Trailblazer team, and all of Cadence Verification is looking forward to reconnecting with Trailblazers in the annual cycle of CDNLive's, "ClubT's", Incisive Seminars & Techtorials, DVClubs, ARM techcons, and DVCons.  Specifically, we look forward to confirming the alignment of our near and long term roadmaps, as well as share and brainstorm about our futuristic visions.

Until then, we can always keep in touch via yesterday's $1 billion idea:

www.twitter.com/jhupcey --> @jhupcey

www.twitter.com/teamspecman --> @teamspecman

www.twitter.com/JohnBruggeman --> @JohnBruggeman

www.twitter.com/cadencedesign --> @cadencedesign

Joe Hupcey III