Bob Smith, Executive DirectorBob Smith is Executive Director of the ESD Alliance responsible for its management and operations. Previously, Bob was senior vice president of Marketing and Business Development at Uniquify, responsible for brand development, positioning, strategy and business development activities. Bob began his career in high tech as an analog design engineer working at Hewlett Packard. Since then, he has spent more than 30 years in various roles in marketing, business development and executive management primarily working with startup and early stage companies. These companies include IKOS Systems, Synopsys, LogicVision, and Magma Design Automation. He was a member of the IPO teams that took Synopsys public in 1992 and Magma public in 2001. Bob received his BSEE from U.C. Davis and his MSEE from Stanford University.
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Bob Smith, Executive DirectorBob Smith is Executive Director of the ESD Alliance responsible for its management and operations. Previously, Bob was senior vice president of Marketing and Business Development at Uniquify, responsible for brand development, positioning, strategy and business development activities. Bob began his
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ESD Alliance to Lead Joint Effort with Cadence, Mentor, a Siemens Business, and Synopsys to Create Server Certification Protocol
August 5th, 2020 by Bob Smith, Executive Director
Here’s some welcome news for our industry: SEMI, Cadence Design Systems, Mentor, a Siemens Business, and Synopsys are embarking on a joint development effort for a new industry standard protocol to be used with software license management systems to prevent software piracy.
The ESD Alliance is playing a key role. Our License Management/Anti-Piracy (LMA) Committee, which includes Cadence, Mentor and Synopsys as members, will provide program management and the framework for the partnership.
The ongoing problem of software piracy makes the Server Certification Protocol a vital and much-needed program. It’s also a reminder of the ESD Alliance’s fundamental ability to bring together leading companies to solve industry problems and reinforces the importance of the design ecosystem as a key element of SEMI’s mission to represent the entire semiconductor electronic product chain.
“Software piracy is a growing challenge and threatens to stifle innovation for EDA companies and customers alike,” says Nimish Modi, senior vice president of market and business development at Cadence. “We are glad to collaborate with the industry on defining this new standard to help further the efforts towards a comprehensive anti-piracy strategy.”
Under terms of the agreement, the partners will work to develop the SEMI Server Certification Protocol to address software piracy, an issue that affects both software vendors and their users. The protocol will outline a standard mechanism defining how every installation of a server can be uniquely identified, putting a substantial barrier in place against piracy.
“New technologies and solutions have enabled other segments of the software industry to combat piracy,” comments Arun Venkatachar, vice president of Synopsys central engineering. “It is time for EDA to be on par with the rest of the industry. This collaborative effort from both vendors and customers is critical for an effective anti-piracy strategy.”
The Scope of the Problem
Currently, most software license management systems rely on a license manager that runs on a server typically identified by a machine identifier. It is relatively easy for software pirates to clone the machine identifier due to virtualization technologies, gaining illegitimate access to many additional licenses without added cost.
“Software piracy ultimately hurts our honest customers since their competitors can gain an unfair advantage by reducing software costs,” remarks Joe Sawicki, executive vice president, IC EDA for Mentor, a Siemens Business. “Theft also raises the price of products sold to legitimate users. Together with our industry peers, Mentor will work to establish a new anti-piracy standard that protects against theft and provides a level playing field for all.”
SEMI’s Role
Once the first version of the protocol is available, access, updates and version control will be managed through SEMI and the LMA Committee.
The LMA Committee works with the Centralized Enterprise Licensing User Group (CELUG), an industry group of IT professionals and users of system design automation software, to address common issues affecting software licensing. CELUG reviewed and voiced their support for the proposed SEMI Server Certification Protocol.
“HPC Pros’ CELUG is pleased to support the ESD Alliance’s continuing efforts to provide a secure license infrastructure,” Derek Magill, executive director of HPC Pros, concludes. “It has worked closely with CELUG to ensure that the certification process will be compatible with the diverse environments of tool customers. Deployment of this capability will increase our confidence that all licenses used are fairly acquired, making it harder for unethical competitors to gain competitive advantage through the theft of licenses.”
Development efforts are under way and I will be able to provide ongoing updates.
Please contact me if you have questions or need more information. I can be reached at bsmith@semi.org.
Reminder: Assessing Design and IP Opportunities in Global Automotive Markets Webinar August 20
Join us Thursday, August 20, as we co-host “The Impact of Future Mobility Disruptions on the Semiconductor Design Ecosystem” with McKinsey & Company. The webinar will outline design and silicon IP opportunities driven by the rapid growth and disruptions in global automotive markets and supply chains. Registration is free of charge.
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