Interview with... Semiconductor India
Designing success
The Semiconductor Policy proposed to develop manufacturing from the strengths
of the Indian semiconductor industry. The major strength has been chip design with
all major players in the region. David Ridsdale of Semiconductor India had the
opportunity to put questions to Mike Fister, Global President & CEO of Cadence Design
Systems on what the industry looks like from a designer’s eyes.
1. Mike, you are a veteran of the (Source: IMF); unemployment levels, rising opens new markets and opportunities for
semiconductor industry. There are talks gas prices, falling home values and rising innovation to thrive in this atmosphere.
of a slowdown in the industry, mirroring inflation are putting the consumers around Finally, the pressure on the industry may
the overall business climate in the US. the world under pressure that is reducing lead to more consolidation of potential
You have seen several of these cycles in demand in the markets. customers We are seeing that the tier 1 and
your career. How do you see the top tier 2 semiconductor companies are
semiconductor industry today? We have been very open about the pressures taking a larger portion of the industry; the
our customers are feeling. And we are not top 20 in 1H08 made up 72% of the
The global business climate is very the only company that is telling this story. industry vs. 68% in 1H07 (Source:
challenging right now, and that has On the plus side, Cadence’s core technology company data; IC Insights). It is inevitable
impacted the semiconductor, and indeed and design/verification solutions are that consolidation in the customer base will
electronics industry in general has been incredibly strong and meets the needs of our lead to consolidation also in the EDA
affected. Anyone who has worked in the customers. So we are focused on ensuring solutions supply base. When the industry
semiconductor industry for as long as I have that we deliver differentiated and recovers, there will likely be fewer
has experienced many downturns and meaningful solutions to our customers, and companies competing in an overall more
subsequent upturns. While some of the just as importantly that we receive healthy market.
bumps in these cycles have smoothed out, appropriate value in return.
for instance, it seems as if manufacturers 3. EDA has shown stagnant to slow
are managing their production cycles so that 2. What are the opportunities that this growth over the years. What do you think
the backlog doesn’t become totally bloated, climate can bring to the semiconductor are the next steps for EDA? What areas
we still must deal with the changing industry? of EDA do you see as the most
economy. challenging for the industry in the next
One of the key opportunities for five years?
In the current environment, the semi semiconductor companies is that companies
industry is growing faster and was up 3.7% become very smart about their resources There are a number of challenging areas.
1h08 vs. 1h07 than it did last year (Source: and out of this comes a great deal of We must continue to improve how we
WSTS/SIA), when it only grew 3.2%. In learning how to make the most out of incorporate manufacturability constraints
2008, Q2 was stronger than Q1 at 6.4%. existing technology nodes. Another and yield dependencies into the up front
Year over year, however global economic opportunity is looking around for other design flow. Enabling design of power
pressure is putting a major damper on markets where our core competency of efficient ICs and addressing the increasing
everyone’s mood. Japan and some of algorithm and software development importance of verification are other areas
Europe look like they will be in a recession applied to design can be applied. A number that have potential within and beyond EDA.
in the latest quarter; the US has not yet of semiconductor companies have invested As a company Cadence is masterful at
declared a recession, if you use the in or are considering investment in complex engineering, that is our core
determinant of two quarters of negative alternative technologies, such as green competency. Our expertise lies in
growth. However it is clear that all technologies like solar panels. This move modelling, analysis, optimisation, and
advanced and emerging regions are slowing ultimately expands the entire market and providing solutions that improve the
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www.semiconductor-india.com | Autumn 2008
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