Research into abstract modeling, validation, verification, partitioning, and implementation has been going on for many years in companies and universities around the world. In fact, many of the names of those researchers have become almost synonymous with their work, and most of the state-of-the-art associated with these areas has been presented in the preceding chapters. In this chapter we examine some of the possible changes of direction that may be in store for the industry as it battles with issues such as Moore’s law, nanotechnology, and the like. In addition, we discuss some of the issues perceived as limitations to progress in this transition from an RTL methodology to an ESL flow, and from a hardware-centric to a software-centric design approach.

Technology is not the only factor that can bring about change. As Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and other more recent publications states, innovation comes equally from the effects of process and technology. If we concentrate only on technology, the forces of inertia will slow us down, and if we concentrate only on process, we drive ourselves into commoditization. We need a balanced approach to innovation.

In this chapter, we discuss various process changes that are happening, such as the continued globalization of the industry and the increased adoption of IP. These factors affect teams and the way engineering operations are performed. Education also needs to evolve to meet the needs of industry. Finally, some in the industry believe that big changes are in store for the EDA industry itself as various parts of the traditional flow come under pressure from a number of different directions. We address these issues as well.

14.1 Research
    14.1.1 Metropolis
    14.1.2 SPACE
    14.1.3 Multiple Processors
    14.1.4 Emerging Architectures
        14.1.4.1 Homogeneous Systems
        14.1.4.2 Heterogeneous Systems
        14.1.4.3 ROSES
14.2 Globalization
14.3 Value Migration
14.4 Education
    14.4.1 The Academic View
14.5 The Health of the Commercial EDA Industry
14.6 Summary
14.7 The Prescription

Errata

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