The RASSP Digest - Vol. 3, September 1996
The EDA Standards Roadmap and the EDA Industry Council
by John Teets
Introduction
In 1996 EDAC, SEMATECH, and CFI with ARPA funding support jointly sponsored a workshop to develop an industry-wide Roadmap for development of standards within Electronic Design Automation. The initial workshop was held March 20-21, 1995 at the Westin Hotel in Santa Clara, California. As described later in this document, the 1996 version of the EDA Standards Roadmap is now available in printed hardcopy form, as well as online on the web.
Increased chip densities and the design of higher performance systems have outgrown the current era of loose collections of EDA tools. Designs across the next decade will demand integrated and highly interoperable systems that allow the designer to traverse back and forth among sophisticated CAD tools at all levels of design from architecture to implementation. Keeping pace with this advancement and the required productivity improvements will necessitate cooperative work across the industry, toward creating and adopting standards to meet EDA system needs in the areas of designer productivity and design complexity management.
EDA Roadmap "Top Ten Projects" Recommended
Technology Transfer:
1. Chip Data Representation (CHDStd)
2. Synthesizable Subsets (RTL Subsets)
3. Delay Project (DCS/DCL)
4. Software Licensing Policy
5. Open Modeling Forum (OMF)
1997 Roadmap Development:
1. PCB/MCM (Above Chip)
2. Test Standards
3. System Level Design and Verification
4. Design Reuse
5. Design System Environment
6. Design Complexity Management
1. Goals
The goal of this effort was to identify and formally document an EDA Standards Roadmap as a staged sequence of development, which must occur over the next decade to meet the requirements of Design and Test of both semiconductors and electronic systems. This Roadmap considers the target goals as well as a flexible co-existence and migration strategy to the goals from where industry is today.
2. Scope
The scope of this Roadmap covers EDA Design and Test Requirements in areas of productivity and complexity management as identified by the "SIA 1194 National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors" (NTRS) and the SRC Semi-conductor White Paper Report "Design Needs for the 21st Century: White Paper," Sept., 1994. The context is on standards and modeling which cut across all technology areas relating to electronic design.
The Roadmap provides focus on productivity and complexity management requirements and dose not address any specific CAD tool functional algorithm requirements. Further, while the sponsors are predominately U.S.-based, the Roadmap is not restricted to U.S. company inputs. It addresses worldwide standards requirements in the following areas:
- EDA CAD System Integration and Interoperability - Design and Data Management
- Technology Libraries and Models
The purpose of the Roadmap is to set direction and priority on industrial and government investments into these requirement areas, specifically recommending redundant competitive efforts that should be converged, and cooperative efforts for which investments in multiple developments serve best to achieve needed goals. Furthermore, the Roadmap provides direction to industry to enable proprietary EDA develop-ment and a base on which CAD groups can plan their proprietary CAD system integrations based upon open EDA standards.
3. Roadmap Organization
Development of the Roadmap was performed under the direction of CFI, EDAC, and SEMATECH by an invited group of technical experts (Roadmap Development Working Groups) from a cross-section of industry, and the results were approved in October 1995 by a select body of key industry leaders (Industry Council) who have the authority and influence to assure implementation of the result.
4. The EDA Industry Council
The EDA Industry Council first met in August 1995 for the purpose of reviewing and adopting the work of the EDA Standards Roadmap effort.
The mission of the Industry Council, as presented by Robert Rozeboom, chairman of the Council, is outlined below:
- Mission: (why does the Council exist)
Promote the adoption and use of open EDA practices and technology in electronic hardware design.
- Vision: (description of the desired future state)
Sufficient data reuse and tool interoperability exists in the EDA industry such that users can focus their energy on satisfying customer needs with new technologies.
- Strategy: (how will this vision be accomplished)
Identify and define directions for critical EDA Standards needed to accomplish business objectives. Facilitate the implementation and promote the use of these standards by aligning industry resources.
- Tactics: (specific tasks)
Establish and maintain the EDA Standards Roadmap based on the NTRS Roadmap and user requirements.
Identify and use "fast track" standards processes for implementation and adoption of standards.
For more details on the above, those readers with access to the web are referred to the EDA Industry Council Home Page at http://www.cfi.org/ic, and the online version of the Standards Roadmap which is accessible from there. The Roadmap can also be downloaded in PostScript form from the CFI ftp site via anonymous login to ftp.cfi.org to /public/Cfi/Development/Roadmap/EII/Roadmap.ps. A presentation to the Industry Council which overview the "top ten" projects is also available for download from the IC Home Page.
Your feedback on the Roadmap and EDA Industry Council activities is encouraged and welcome! Please contact John Teets (teets@cfi.org) for additional information.
The EDA Industry Council Members
Electronics Companies:
Joseph Borel, SGS Thomson Microelectronics
John Darringer, IBM
William Evans, Lucent Technologies
Jan-Olof Kismalm, Ericsson
Lance Mills, Hewlett-Packard
L. J. Reed, Motorola
EDA Vendor Companies:
Joe Costello, Cadence
Aart deGeus, Synopsys
Alain Hanover, ViewLogic
Wally Rhines, Mentor Graphics
Semiconductor Companies:
Lambert van den Hoven, Phillips Semiconductor
Greg Ledenbach, SEMATECH
Robert Rozeboom, Texas Instruments (Chairman)
Gadi Singer, Intel
Kinya Tabuchi, Mitsubishi Electric
Hitoshi Yoshizawa, NEC
Standards Groups/Government:
Andrew Graham, CFI
Randy Harr, ARPA
John J. Teets, II
CFI
4030 W. Braker Lane, Suite 550
Austin, TX 78759
teets@cfi.org
Newsletter Index
The RASSP Digest - Vol. 3, September 1996
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