EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – Mentor

As we move into 2020, artificial intelligence (AI) remains the top technology trend driving the evolution of the EDA space. Last year, venture capital pumped $860 million into AI silicon startups, each of which need state-of-the-art EDA tools to design and deliver next-generation AI ICs. And of course, established IC firms around the globe have for years developed increasingly innovative AI IC designs that push the boundaries of what’s possible with EDA software. To help companies deliver more sophisticated AI processor designs, EDA companies such as Mentor, a Siemens business are doing two things: (1) developing tools to help companies design AI-accelerators faster, and (2) actually leveraging machine learning algorithms to improve their own EDA IC design tools, so they can deliver better results for customers faster. Look for more of this in 2020.

AI technology carries over to another trend to watch in 2020: silicon photonics. Data centers are central to the evolution of AI, due to the need for faster processing within the data center, as well as the need to move that data into and out of data centers more rapidly. Enter silicon photonics, which in 2019 began to emerge from research labs and find its way into more and more commercial deployments. Watch for silicon photonics ICs to make a move into the data center, where their promise of dramatic performance improvement is much needed.

Next: EDA in the cloud. Not a new trend, but one that remains highly relevant. The leading cloud service providers have made significant progress in recent years relative to security, and this has further opened the cloud’s virtually unlimited, on-demand capacity for the benefit of IC designers. The implication here for EDA companies is to ensure their tools can scale for cloud configurations such that, the more CPUs are utilized, the faster customers can complete design and verification runs. Mentor and its customers achieved several cloud-scalability milestones in 2019, and we expect to see continued strong interest in our EDA cloud offerings throughout 2020 and the coming years.

Finally, watch for Mentor to lead the way relative to IC and system verification and validation via Digital Twin technology, which enables engineering disciplines to work seamlessly together, eliminating boundaries between electrical, mechanical design, electrical system distribution, and many other fields. This is an emerging and important area that Mentor, as part of Siemens Digital Industries Software, is uniquely positioned to drive, as evidenced by the 2019 introduction of the award-wining Siemens PAVE360 solution for automotive design, featuring Veloce emulation technology.

Happy New year to all—I am looking forward to an exciting 2020 for Mentor, our customers and the broader EDA industry!

Tags: Predictions

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