The global EDA industry is in good shape: according to the report just released by the ESD Alliance, worldwide revenue increased 6.6 percent for Q2 2019 to $2472.1 million, compared to $2318.5 million in Q2 2018. Revenue breakdown by product category shows that the biggest growth was in semiconductor IP, with a 19.7 percent increase. Revenue breakdown by region indicates a 5.5 decrease in the Americas and a 23.7 percent increase in Asia/Pacific.
EDA expertise, a good match for machine learning
Among the many factors impacting EDA revenue, the booming AI/ML market may have a positive effect. As Cadence’s Anirudh Devgan said at the DAC’19 Troublemakers Panel, “The good thing about machine learning is it’s computational. So, if you look at the software industry in the last ten years, most of the activity is in social media, which is not really computational. (…) When it is actually computational, it’s lot of matrix multiplies and all kinds of numerical analysis — which is in the sweet spot of traditional EDA expertise. (…) The EDA companies are very well suited to do machine learning in a fundamental way. (…) Inherently our [Cadence’s] core strength matches very well with machine learning.” Transcripts from the panel have been recently posted on the moderator’s website, John Cooley.
Anirudh Devgan. Image credit: Cadence
