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I. Introduction:
The initial EDA Weekly article on Agilent EEsof EDA appeared in EDAcafe.com on Monday February 01, 2010. See Agilent EEsof EDA -- Part I.
The EEsof EDA component of Agilent Technologies Incorporated is headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA (across the Golden Gate Bridge, up 101, some 58 miles north of San Francisco):
During the very first interview in January 2010 with the Agilent EEsof EDA management in Santa Rosa, it became clear to this writer that one installment of EDA Weekly would prove insufficient to adequately describe the intricate 27-year evolution of this unique enterprise.
Thus it was that Part I was devoted to the founding of EEsof itself in 1983, then covering events up to EEsof's friendly acquisition by Hewlett Packard (HP) in 1993, a marriage that combined the two primary competitors then supplying early users of Radio Frequency (RF) and Microwave (MW) electronics design & analysis software tools.
Part II herein is itself divided into two incrementally successful periods for EEsof: the 1993-1999 phase of EEsof as a part of HP:
and then the 2000 - 2010 decade of EEsof as a division of Agilent Technologies:
Moreover, the future looks bright for Agilent EEsof EDA, as the group has emerged in recent years to command a 63% share of the worldwide market for RF & MW circuit simulation software, and today EEsof is nearly four times larger than its nearest competitor [source: Gary Smith EDA (GSEDA) - a leading provider of market intelligence for the global EDA and related technology market].
But this enduring market leadership position has not gone to the heads of EEsof personnel. Everyone this writer encountered at Agilent EEsof EDA exhibited the same primary characteristic - a focus on the technical and business successes of EEsof customers. Fostering this culture has apparently been the hallmark of EEsof management policy since the pre-merger days of the early nineties when intense competition between EEsof and HP as separate entities often proved unproductive to all concerned, according to several current long-time EEsof customers polled by this writer.
Agilent EEsof EDA people simply ignore the ongoing attempts by present-day competitors to lure EEsof back into the unproductive fray. When some unprofessional criticisms appeared recently from EEsof rivals after Part I was posted, the Agilent folks maintained their cool attitudes. “After 27 years, the business definitely gains some real insights into what works and what doesn't. It's easy to get drawn into a culture where you get overly focused on your competitors. The problem with that is, competitors come and go,” stated Larry Lerner, Agilent EEsof R&D Manager [1]. “What motivates us is helping our customers with the tough technical and business challenges they face. That continues to be the overwhelming part of our DNA.”
II. EEsof EDA after the Acquisition by HP:
The 1993 acquisition of EEsof by HP has long been regarded by company veterans sampled by the writer, as one of the most successful acquisitions HP had ever done up to that time.
“As with any acquisition, there were lots of business and integration issues to sort out during 1993-94,” says 20-year HP/Agilent EEsof veteran Charles Plott, now heading Product Marketing and Planning at Agilent EEsof [2]. “On the employee side, everything went pretty well. As a merged organization we had amassed the world's leading brain trust in RF EDA. EEsof added some very talented people to the newly combined HP entity - many of whom are still with the organization in leadership roles 17 years later.”
Even as the ink was still drying on the acquisition agreement in 1993, the newly combined marketing and product development teams from HP and EEsof began thinking about how their mutual customers could quickly benefit from the merger. “On the product front, there were a couple of quick wins to pursue,” said Charles Plott. “For example, there were parts of the EEsof software product portfolio that HP customers longed for, like Omnisys (EEsof's RF System Simulator).”
There were also parts of the HP portfolio that EEsof customers could leverage, such as the HP electromagnetic (EM) simulation technology. “One of the first relatively straightforward projects we implemented was porting the HP Momentum planar electromagnetic (EM) solver product to EEsof's Series IV platform,” said Larry Lerner. “Momentum had been, and continues to be, a very successful part of our technology portfolio, so quickly making it accessible from EEsof's Series IV platform was a pretty easy decision.”
However, a potentially huge project loomed on the horizon for HP EEsof. Prior to the merger, each company had independently implemented its own proprietary flagship software platform - HP had developed its Microwave Design System (MDS), differing in many unique ways from EEsof's Series IV platform. Both companies had large installed bases of loyal customers. Both companies had large overlaps in simulation technologies and model sets.
Rather than try to choose one platform over the other, the newly merged HP and EEsof leadership made a courageous decision: its commingled software development team would embark on a multi-year project to develop a totally new platform that would combine the best ideas and technologies from both HP and EEsof, and add some new features and functions as well. Internally, the project was named DE 1.0 (Design Environment 1.0), and at introduction it was officially re-named the Advanced Design System (ADS). Years later the investment has paid off, and today ADS is widely acknowledged to be the most used software platform in the world for RF & MW design.
“The decision to build ADS was a risky one. It was by far the most complex and most expensive project ever attempted by the HP Test & Measurement Group. It was also a heavily constrained project with many must-have requirements. In fact, we didn't nail all of them down at the outset. It was a several year endeavor and a continual challenge to manage, always weighing the trade-offs among scope, schedule, and resources,” said Larry Lerner. “But looking back on it, it was the right decision and we have always appreciated the many customers and partners that worked closely with us through that important period of our history.”
1st Generation of ADS
Microwaves & RF Magazine: November 1999
In parallel to the large ADS project, there were other groups within EEsof that were pursuing innovations and new simulation technologies during the 1993 - 1999 HP EEsof years. For example, in addition to time-domain and frequency domain simulators, a new technology called “Circuit Envelope Simulation” was also being patented and introduced by HP EEsof. Later in this 7-year period, still another R&D team was working on the integration of a complete data flow simulator called HP Ptolemy. The Ptolemy engine was well known and the technology was proven with origins going back to UC Berkeley. Both of these technologies set a foundation for ADS to handle uniquely the complicated digital modulation standards that were yet to come.
Under the care of HP veteran Jake Egbert as VP/GM, EEsof continued to grow its revenues and customer base from 1993 to 1999.
III. The Agilent Technologies' Spinout and IPO:
In 1999, HP announced a landmark decision, to split the entire corporation into two separate companies. The original Test & Measurement (T&M) part of HP (that dated all the way back to the early days of Bill Hewlett & Dave Packard), became Agilent Technologies, which in November 1999 was to execute the largest IPO in Silicon Valley history.
Today, Agilent Technologies Inc. of Santa Clara, CA is the world's premier measurement company, with $4.5 billion in revenues in FY09 and over 16,000 employees. In its most recent quarter, Agilent Technologies reported order growth of 9% and a 21% Return on Invested Capital. Also worth noting: as of mid-March 2010, Agilent's Market Cap was approximately $11.65 billion. Its stock (NYSE Symbol A) is up approximately 140% over a 52-week period (blue line in the chart below), easily outpacing the Dow (red line). (Chart courtesy of Yahoo! Finance):
As mentioned earlier, EEsof went with Agilent Technologies as part of the spinout from HP. This arrangement was inevitable, as EEsof software was then (and is now) also used internally by hundreds of Agilent T&M RF/MW engineers to help analyze and design virtually all of Agilent's commercially-offered RF/MW test and measurement equipment.
As a separate entity inside Agilent, EEsof EDA today provides its customers a broad spectrum of EDA software, including applications for microwave (MW), Radio Frequency (RF), high-frequency, high-speed, RF system, electronic system level (ESL), circuit, 3-D electromagnetic, physical design and device-modeling. Agilent EEsof EDA offers both single user software products as well as enterprise-level solutions.
At the time of the Agilent IPO in 1999, however, the future growth and prosperity of EEsof was definitely not assured. After all, despite possessing the powerful technologies of both the existing HP and EEsof applications software products, the first generation of the EEsof ADS platform was just starting to mature.
But Agilent EEsof EDA had several additional “unfair advantages” going for it.
The first was that in March 2000, Agilent EEsof EDA snagged a new General Manager, Jim McGillivary, who would successfully lead EEsof for the next 10 years though a new era of growth and prosperity [3].
The second advantage was that EEsof had aggressively developed its own dedicated sales force and support network worldwide.
As the new century dawned, there were also two fresh segments of the emerging marketplace that were starting to look to EEsof's technology - Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) designers and Signal Integrity (SI) analysts.
“In both RFIC and Signal Integrity, we were hearing clear signals from the EEsof field organization and from customers,” said Charles Plott. “For example in RFIC, several leading customers wanted to see our circuit simulation technology, electromagnetic (EM) simulation technology, high-frequency models, and data display capabilities accessible from a Cadence® Virtuoso® Simulation flow.”
(Note: The latter “simulation flow” is used by many of today's integrated circuit (IC) designers to push the limits of traditional IC design tools and methods to meet requirements for increased IC complexity and faster time to market).
“We've worked closely with Cadence Design Systems, Inc. to close this gap,” continued Plott. “Both companies still invest to make sure that our mutual customers continue to have access to a complete, up-to-date RFIC flow. It's an important part of our portfolio and we have several large mutual customers in every geographic region that help us drive our technology and roadmap forward.”
Signal Integrity (SI) is considered another expansion area for Agilent EEsof EDA that started early in this decade. In fact, there is now a completely separate team within EEsof that focuses exclusively on the emerging needs of the SI market segment.
(Note: In general, SI has to do with the “quality” of an electrical signal, especially important in today's digital electronics. Over short distances and at low speeds, most conductors can easily transmit a signal with high fidelity. However, at high speeds and/or over longer distances, various effects can degrade the electrical signal to the point where errors may occur, and in some cases, the device may even fail. SI engineering is an important activity at all levels of electronics packaging, from internal connections within an integrated circuit (IC), along the connections in a printed circuit board (PCB), in a backplane, and even along inter-system connections).
In recent years, EEsof has encountered the demand for effective SI software tools not only from its external customers, but also directly from Agilent Test & Measurement (T&M) engineers and designers in house. The latter have had to deal with and overcome SI effects in the very Agilent test & measurement products that are often used by their customers to analyze SI effects in the field, such as Agilent oscilloscopes. “In fact,” says Larry Lerner, “We have gone so far as to embed some of the T&M firmware into EEsof ADS, so that EEsof software customers can see the same 'use models and algorithms' for things like jitter decomposition and Double Data Rate (DDR) memory compliance testing.”
IV. RF & MW EDA Market Consolidation (2005 - 2010)
During recent years, Agilent EEsof EDA management enhanced the company's horizons by executing several acquisitions in a planned ongoing effort to expand its RF/MW portfolio and to consolidate key industry expertise. While multiple EEsof people were involved in due diligence and other aspects of these acquisitions, VP/GM Jim McGillivary oversaw their successful execution.
(Note: Space available in this issue of EDA Weekly permits only summaries of three EEsof acquisitions of special note; these three were carried out within a relatively short period).
A. Agilent EEsof EDA acquires Eagleware-Elanix (2005):
Called “Chipbusters” early on, for nearly 20 years Eagleware had built a strong following of RF/MW customers. Whereas Agilent EEsof EDA focused on providing enterprise software, the Eagleware team had found its niche in providing software for smaller companies and personal use.
During its long history in the marketplace, it turned out that Eagleware-Elanix had amassed the second largest number of RF/MW EDA users (next to Agilent EEsof). Founded by Randy Rhea in the mid-1980's, Eagleware-Elanix also offered world class RF filter synthesis technology and certain innovative RF system simulation technology. All of these attributes made Eagleware-Elanix an interesting acquisition target for Agilent EEsof EDA.
“Eagleware-Elanix was an important acquisition for us and it was the first in a series of EEsof acquisitions. Eagleware-Elanix was servicing a part of the market that EEsof wasn't. Not only did they have some excellent technology that we were interested in, adding Eagleware-Elanix in 2005 allowed us to begin offering customers a full range of solutions from low-cost personal use to full enterprise,” said Charles Plott. “We continue to enhance and update both product lines. What's attractive is that smaller customers can now scale their software selections, and as they grow they can migrate to an enterprise solution while preserving their original investments. In addition, the former Eagleware president and CEO, Todd Cutler, and former CTO, Rob Lefebvre, both occupy leadership roles within today's Agilent EEsof EDA organization.”
B. Agilent EEsof EDA acquires Xpedion (2006):
Another company that was making excellent contributions in the area of RFIC simulation was Xpedion. Based in Santa Clara here in California, Xpedion was earning its reputation by providing RFIC designers with a very high-capacity frequency domain simulator called GoldenGate.
“Several of our customers first called our attention to the GoldenGate simulator and to Xpedion as a company. It was immediately clear to EEsof that Xpedion had a very bright R&D team, as well as an excellent understanding of customers' RFIC design/analysis flows,” said Larry Lerner. “RF is such a special niche of the EDA world, that when you find pure play companies like Xpedion that focus on RF, it just makes a lot of sense to join forces (provided of course that the technologies are complementary). The Xpedion R&D team has been a great addition to Agilent EEsof EDA.”
C. Agilent EEsof EDA Acquires 3D Electromagnetic Technology:
In 2006, Agilent EEsof EDA announced that it would re-enter the 3D Electromagnetic (EM) simulation market. Coupled with EEsof's own finite-element simulator and an acquisition of selected technology from Remcom (State College, PA) in 2008, Agilent EEsof EDA continued expanding to fill out its portfolio in the EM area when EEsof introduced Electromagnetic Professional (EMPro), then a new design platform for analyzing the electromagnetic (EM) effects of RF and microwave components such as high-speed IC packages, antennas, on-chip embedded passives and PCB interconnects.
“The mid-90's decision to exit the 3D EM niche was probably not one of our finest moments. But I can tell you that there was clear feedback from our ADS customers that they wanted us back in the market. There were lots of technical and business factors driving their requests and I can say we've made some significant investments in the past several years - including the Remcom technology and other acquisitions,” said Charles Plott. “High-frequency EM simulation was not new to us. Our Momentum planar 3D EM technology was well established and used successfully by both ADS and non-ADS EEsof customers.”
V. Looking Ahead: Emerging Market Trends (2010 - Future):
The time spent by this writer with Agilent EEsof EDA personnel for the interviews and follow ups for developing the two EDA Weekly articles posted February 01 and March 29, was not only far more extensive than the time devoted to any other profiled Company to date, it was at once personally fascinating and exhausting.
Indeed, the writer could not walk away from this EEsof project without asking these well-informed folks about the future, theirs and ours. It seems that software from the world of RF & MW EDA will continue to be in high demand, given some of the trends underway. Whereas the following is not an exhaustive list, readers may see several industry developments and technical challenges that are sure to keep the EDA players in this market space busy.
A. Nonlinear Modeling and X-parameters
This is one of the more important emerging industry developments in both RF & MW measurement and simulation. For decades, high-frequency engineers have relied on what are called S-parameters to accurately characterize linear circuits. When first introduced, S-parameters spawned complete new categories of products like network analyzers and linear simulators, and S-parameters remain a cornerstone of high-frequency design. A much more recent innovation is the development of X-parameters [4]. Whereas S-parameters accurately describe linear circuits, X-parameters are mathematical extensions of S-parameters used to help designers accurately measure and simulate nonlinear components (such as power amplifiers, mixers, etc.).
“There have been a few times in Agilent EEsof EDA history where one can clearly see a significant shift happening with the technology. 'X-parameters' is one of those points of inflection. The invention of X-parameters allows engineers to use a Nonlinear Network Analyzer or a Nonlinear Circuit Simulator to more accurately characterize the behavior of their real-world circuit designs via nonlinear network parameters,” stated Charles Plott. “It's early, but I can already see this as a disruptive technology and it appears to be following the same path of how S-parameters and Linear Simulators rolled out years ago.”
Most importantly, Agilent has published the X-parameter equations and the X-parameter file structure in an open, unencrypted, human-readable format to encourage industry adoption. In addition, both the Agilent test & measurement teams and EEsof simulation teams are working with many partners, customers and others in the industry to make sure there is a successful and efficient deployment of this technology.
The most recent issue from the leading RF/MW trade publication, Microwave Journal, contains a thorough write-up of this technology as its March 2010 cover story:
B. Market Shift in 3D EM Simulation
In RF design, there continues to be constant pressure to integrate more RF functionality into a package or module. What used to be single chip power amplifiers (PA) only a few years ago have rapidly grown to multi-chip power amplifier modules (PAM). Even in a single chip situation, modeling the effects of the package on the overall component performance requires both circuit simulation tools and full three-dimensional Electromagnetic (3D EM) simulation.
Of course, the same integration trend must happen with the EDA tools used in this segment - especially as it relates to 3D electromagnetic simulation (3D EM). Previously 3D EM tools have been thought of only as standalone software programs or platforms. But as RF hardware engineers try to cram more and more into a package or onto a laminate, the worlds between circuit simulation and EM simulation become indistinguishably blurred and interdependent. This trend is driving the need to integrate these two types of tools for many RF/MW applications (on-chip modeling, packaging effects, shielding effects, antenna design, etc.).
“The integration of EM simulation within a circuit simulation environment has been happening in the market for years. For multi-layer planer EM solvers, it's already the industry norm and the primary way in which these tools are accessed (via circuit simulators). Now the trend is simply extending to 3D EM solvers,” said Charles Plott.
“Let me use an analogy. Several years ago I used Microsoft Word as one of my primary software tools. Now I rarely use it. What happened? My email software added fonts, formatting, spell checking, thesaurus, inserting graphics, embedding web links, and so on. Now I seldom have to leave my primary email environment because the email software capabilities are more convenient and accessible,” said Charles. “The same kind of shift is happening in the RF/MW EDA market with 3D electromagnetic simulation. Many RF/MW engineers use circuit simulators all day long. Integrating 3D EM simulation technology in the work flow removes the headaches of using two tools, reduces potential mistakes from having a disconnected flow, saves CAD management from supporting several platforms, and most importantly, it can save them money. It's hard to deny this trend and I suspect it won't take long to fully play out.”
C. Completing the RF MMIC/Module Flow:
Much like 3D electromagnetic simulation, there is a trend in the RF/MW design community to complete the entire flow - especially in MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) and RF Module design. As these designs become more complex, the need to expand beyond simulation and better integrate all elements of the flow (foundry Process Design Kits, full layout, Design Rule Checking, Layout vs. Schematic, 3D views, EM analysis) is becoming increasingly critical. Today, engineers, CAD managers, and foundries are challenged with piecing together a complete flow with multiple tools.
“This is definitely one of the areas where we are making an intensified investment. We have several industry leading customers working closely with EEsof R&D. They tell us that many suppliers claim to have a complete RF MMIC/Module flow, but few really do when you cut through the hype,” said Larry Lerner. “We're getting good feedback from these customers that EEsof is on the right path, and we're going to keep investing in this area because we believe we're in a good position, with all of the pieces, to make fundamental improvements our customers' work flows.”
As examples, the EEsof management team described to the writer their work with the leading RF/MW foundries to provide complete Process Design Kits, as well as the addition of embedded tools like the Desktop Design Rule Checking and Desktop Layout vs. Schematic that now put these important design steps at the RF/MW designer's finger tips.
The EEsof technical breakthroughs with X-parameters, and the investments made to truly integrate 3D EM simulation in the flow are other examples.
D. Digital and RF
In the past decade, there has been an explosion of new wireless standards and new formats. The complexity of today's and tomorrow's emerging wireless communications standards is forcing traditional analog/RF designers to face a new reality; namely, that baseband DSP (digital signal processing) and RF must live side by side. The increasing horsepower and decreasing size/cost/power envelope of baseband DSP hardware (both in embedded DSP and FPGA architectures) allows analog and RF design to stretch the boundaries of technology. (FPGA = Field Programmable Gate Array) The necessity of “co-design” whereby both DSP and analog/RF parameters are analyzed and optimized simultaneously is being accepted widely, both in commercial wireless design as well as in defense applications like software-defined radio and advanced RADAR design.
“Several years ago we started development on a new Electronic System Level (ESL) software platform (SystemVue) that helps our customers design and prototype complex communication systems, by combining advanced DSP capability with behavioral RF,” said Larry Lerner. “In the case of commercial wireless design, where complex 3.9G/4G standards are becoming more mature, like LTE (Long Term Evolution) or WiMax, we not only allow complex co-design of DSP with behavioral RF, but also we provide pre-built DSP libraries of PHY (Physical Layer) layer1 building blocks for our customers to verify that their designs really work under 'drive-test' conditions.”
VI. One Last Comment:
Sharp-eyed readers of the EDA Weekly on Agilent EEsof EDA - Part I, first posted on February 01, 2010, surely initially noticed the entry deep in the text, “Watch this space for possible Breaking News”. This entry was placed there by the writer, who had been informed before February 01, 2010 that a change in Agilent EEsof EDA leadership was occurring, but that the news was enjoined until after the EDA Weekly press time on February 01.
So subsequent to the February 01 posting of Part I of Agilent EEsof EDA, but still during the 2-week period when the article was actively featured on the EDAcafe.com web site (on February 11, 2010 to be precise), we inserted the following announcement into the Part I article (the photo is new):
Santa Rosa, CA, February 11, 2010 -- Dr. Mark Pierpoint has been named as the new Vice President & General Manager of Agilent EEsof EDA. Mark has a long track record of achievements within Agilent Technologies and was most recently responsible for the Electronic Measurement Group's Technology and Services Organization, which developed ICs, common components, R&D processes and tools for Agilent's instrument divisions. "EEsof has an enviable reputation as the premier RF and Microwave EDA solutions provider, and I'm looking forward to build on this and work with our customers to meet the design challenges of the next decade," said Mark. Graduating from Leeds University with a PhD in Microwave Engineering, Mark joined HP/Agilent in 1987.
After 10 years of successfully leading Agilent EEsof EDA, Jim McGillivary will be working closely with Mark until the end of April 2010 before leaving Agilent to pursue other opportunities.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Larry Lerner's BIO
Current Position: Senior R&D Manager
Larry Lerner was born in 1957 and reared in Los Angeles.
In 1975 he entered Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA, graduating in 1979. He went on to Stanford were he received an MSEE in 1980.
Larry's first job was as a system design engineer working on multi-channel EW receivers for Bunker Ramo located in Westlake Village, CA.
In 1982 he moved over to Amplica, where he was responsible for designing microwave hybrid amplifiers and automated device characterization.
In 1984, after 2 years at Amplica, Larry was hired into a new software company, EEsof, as one of its first R&D employees.
Since that time Larry has held several jobs at EEsof, including R&D section manager, product planning manager, and (since 2000) Senior R&D Manager responsible for worldwide product development and order fulfillment.
Larry is married with 2 children and lives in Camarillo, CA.
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[2] Charles Plott BIO:
Current Position: Product Marketing & Planning Manager
Charles Plott was born in 1965 and spent most of his early life in Southern California.
In 1984 he entered the University of California at Santa Barbara and graduated in 1989 with high honors in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a focus on Microwave Engineering. Charles also holds a BA degree in Economics/Mathematics from UCSB and was the University's sole recipient of the “Outstanding Achievements in Economics/Mathematics” award in his 1989 graduating class.
Charles joined HP in 1989 and started working in the marketing department of the CAE operation. Since then, Charles has held a wide variety of management positions within the HP/Agilent EEsof business. His current organization inside Agilent EEsof EDA is responsible for both inbound and outbound marketing for the Company. In addition to this, he also leads strategic planning for the Agilent EEsof EDA organization.
Before being promoted to the Agilent EEsof EDA leadership team in 2005, Charles held several other management positions within Agilent Technologies, including section manager for Agilent EEsof's Product Marketing organization, building and managing Agilent EEsof's Technical Application Development Organization, and holding several management roles related to Agilent EEsof's recent acquisitions. In 2006, he started a Business Initiative focused on accelerating Agilent's Electromagnetic Simulation portfolio and he continues to lead that cross-functional team today.
Charles now resides with his family in Santa Rosa, California with his wife and two boys.
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[3] Jim McGillivary BIO
Position: March 200 - April 2010 VP & General Manager, now emeritus
Jim McGillivary was born in 1961 and reared in Detroit, Michigan.
In 1979 he entered the University of Michigan, where he earned a BSEE in Electrical Engineering in 1983. He paid for his college education by working as a bicycle and high-end audio repair person.
His first job out of college was with Harris in Florida. Six months later he followed his fiancée out to Cupertino, CA and worked for Lockheed in Sunnyvale for 2 years. In 1996 he hired into HP as an EMI/RFI design engineer at the HP Integrated Systems Division (ISD) in Sunnyvale, CA.
Jim became an R&D project manager at ISD in 1990. In 1992, he was promoted to R&D section manager, managing multiple system integrator projects for the automotive and telecom industries. In 1994, McGillivary transferred to the East Coast and became the R&D manager of the HP Power Products Division in New Jersey. McGillivary thereafter moved to the division's marketing manager position prior to being named general manager in 1998.
After the Agilent spin-out from HP, Jim transferred to Santa Rosa, CA and was named general manager of Agilent EEsof EDA Division in March 2000.
In addition to his day-to-day general management duties, Jim successfully drove the expansion of the EEsof EDA product line during his tenure, including the following initiatives:
- In 2002, EEsof EDA formed a ground breaking strategic alliance with Cadence Design Systems to bring EEsof high frequency design expertise and tools to the Cadence RFIC design flow.
- In 2005, the EEsof EDA division acquired the Eagleware Elanix Corporation and smoothly merged Eagleware Elanix' people and products into the EEsof product line.
- In 2006, Jim led the acquisition of Xpedion Design Systems. This brought in a world class RFIC simulator and simulation technology to further strengthen all simulators in the EEsof product line.
- In 2007, EEsof entered the 3DEM segment of the EDA market with the introduction of EMPro.
- In 2009, EEsof expansion continued into the “System Level” design space with the introduction of the SystemVue product. This product focuses on the high level design of communication channels like WiMax and LTE.
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[4] X-Parameters is a registered trademark of Agilent Technologies, Inc. The X-Parameter format and underlying equations are open and documented. For more information visit http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof-x-parameters-info
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Acknowledgments:
The writer would again like to acknowledge the direct or indirect support of the following individuals or sources in the preparation of this second EDA Weekly article about Agilent EEsof EDA: Mrs. Lisa Hebert, Mr. Jim McGillivary, Mr. Larry Lerner, Mr. Greg Peterschmidt, and Mr. Charles Plott, all of Agilent EEsof EDA; also, Mr. Mike Neering - retired HP R&D Manager of the HP CAE group, as well as the many other unnamed past & present EEsof employees and customers polled by the writer. Other sources reviewed in preparation of the Parts I and II articles on Agilent EEsof EDA include references to portions of a 2001 historical perspective commissioned by Agilent Technologies by Gary Breed; Wikipedia; Hoover's; Microwave Journal, the Agilent EEsof EDA website; Microwaves & RF Magazine; the Cadence website; Gary Smith EDA (GSEDA); Yahoo! Finance; and Google Finance. Ongoing support by the team at IBSystems, Inc., including but not limited to Sanjay Gangal, Adam Heller, David Heller, Jon Heller, and Sumit Singhal, is also appreciated.
AFTERWORD:
The writer of this second Agilent EEsof EDA article would especially like to acknowledge and thank Charles Plott for his relentless dedication in assisting the writer in the preparation and verification of the contents of Part II.
About the Writer of this EDA Weekly:
Since 1996, Dr. Russ Henke has been president of HENKE ASSOCIATES, a San Francisco Bay Area high-tech business & management consulting firm. The number of client companies for Henke Associates now numbers more than forty. During his corporate career, Henke operated sequentially on "both sides" of MCAE-MCAD and EDA, as a software user and as a CAD vendor. He's a veteran corporate executive from Cincinnati Milacron, SDRC, Schlumberger Applicon, Gould Electronics, ATP, and Mentor Graphics.
Henke is a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and served on the SME International Board of Directors. Henke was also a board member of SDRC, PDA, ATP, and the MacNeal Schwendler Corporation. He currently serves on the board of Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. Dr. Henke is also a member of the IEEE and a Life Fellow of ASME International.
In April 2006, Dr. Henke received the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from the CAD Society, presented by CAD Society president Jeff Rowe at COFES2006 in Scottsdale, AZ. In February 2007, Henke became affiliated with Cyon Research's select group of experts on business and technology issues as a Senior Analyst. This Cyon Research connection aids and supplements Henke's ongoing, independent consulting practice (HENKE ASSOCIATES).
Since May 2003 HENKE ASSOCIATES has published a total of eighty-eight (88) independent quarterly Commentaries on MCAD, PLM, EDA and Electronics IP on IBSystems' MCADCafé and EDACafé. Access to the latest of these Commentaries, along with all the EDA Weekly articles posted to date by the writer, may be gained by clicking on this URL:
Further information on HENKE ASSOCIATES, is available at http://www.henkeassociates.net. March 31, 2010 marks the 14th Anniversary of the founding of HENKE ASSOCIATES.
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