( ESNUG 320 Item 4 ) ---------------------------------------------- [6/2/99]
Subject: ( ESNUG 315 #1 318 #4 ) How Engineers React To Reusing Designs
> Having talked about reuse with hundreds of engineers over the last two
> years, I can assure everyone that reuse is not a myth. It's a practical
> reality and just common sense. I agree with Mr. Cummings that engineers
> don't want to reuse someone else's design if the alternative is to design
> something interesting if it's easier to do this than to reuse an existing
> solution. What I don't understand is why anyone would want to create a new
> CPU if an existing one would do, or why they'd want to sit down with 600
> pages of standards documentation and design the world's ten-thousandth PCI
> core, USB, MPEG, vector-multiplier or 8051.
>
> - [ John Chilton, VP/GM Design Reuse at Synopsys ]
From: [ Cousin 'It' from the Addams Family ]
John, please keep me anon.......
While design reuse has a very positive impact on product cycle times, there
are many negatives to the concept as well.
Having worked in the ASIC industry for 15 years, I can say from my own
experiences, that while design reuse is a necessary reality that is here to
stay, it truly demoralizes the engineering staff more than salary freezes
and layoffs. Not one of us went to engineering school saying, "When I get
out, I want to reuse somebody else's stuff for the next 30 years."
I have extensive experience with design reuse. Over my career, I would
estimate that 90% of my activity has been with IP that was being reused.
There are basic difficulties with design reuse, one is specification
maintenance. Timers, interrupt controllers and similiar "low impact" IP
blocks generally require little or no maintenance or upkeep. PCI
interfaces, Firewire, USB, networking and other "high impact" IP blocks
require maintenance to keep them up to the current level of their specs.
To perform this maintenance, you must have a staff with expert-level
knowledge of the block and the specification.
Then there is the issue of product differentiation. If every company in a
product sector uses the same set of blocks from the same supplier, there
is a practical limit to how much product differentiation can be realized.
At that point, every product in the sector becomes a commodity, and it is
difficult to turn a real profit on a commodity. So to achieve product
differentiation you must be able to enhance the technology that you are
dealing with this is difficult enough, but when you did not author a block,
it becomes a hair pulling experience.
It is naive to think that design reuse will go away. Schedules, business
pressures, the EDA industry and the IP industry won't let that happen. It
is equally naive to think that you can take a seasoned ASIC engineering
staff, give them a diet of 90% design reuse, and expect them to stay
motivated, innovative and content. There has to be a balance.
- [ Cousin 'It' from the Addams Family ]
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