( ESNUG 463 Item 5 ) -------------------------------------------- [03/16/07]
Subject: Answers from Vic Kulkarni, CEO of Sequence
> Ask Vic why does he hate Americans? He advocates moving all EDA jobs
> to India. If he hates the US so much, why does he live here?
>
> Why are you coaching US businesses to outsource our R&D to India?
The real challenge is globalization. I believe in taking advantage of
global trends, and am prepared to go wherever we have customers and
wherever we can find talent. I have been associated running R&D and
operations in China, Taiwan, France, Japan, UK, multiple locations
within the US for about 27 years and now in India for the last 3 years.
Just look at the recent statistics:
There are 130 semi companies in India now including multinationals such
as TI, Infineon, LSI, ATI/AMD, Nvidia, Cisco, ST Micro, NEC, Renesas and
so on. There are about 4,000 engineers doing chip designs in these
companies. Additionally, local Indian companies like Wipro, Sasken,
Open-Silicon and many others have over 2,000 engineers doing chip design
services for US, Japanese and European clients.
India is the fastest growing market for electronic products in the world
with sales expected to increase from $28 billion to $363 billion by 2015.
In EDA there are approximately 15 companies expanding operations in India
by my count, employing about 2,000 engineers. It's a who's-who of EDA
that includes Cadence, Mentor, Synopsys, Magma, Co-Ware, Apache, Atrenta,
Bluespec, Arch-Pro, Synfora, Calypto, SoftJin, and Sequence among others.
Success now requires getting the best engineers worldwide. We have
software and customer support engineers in Seattle, Santa Clara, Tokyo,
Boston, the UK and India to not only innovate, but provide 24/7 support
to our customers. We pride ourselves on being a company that can work
distributed around the world.
As a matter of fact, we are not moving all EDA jobs to India, or anywhere
else for that matter. We have about 75 employees worldwide, and we hire
in all locations, depending upon local needs and local talent.
That being said, India is expanding because the overall growth rate there
is much higher. For example, several of our customers are demanding direct
support in India. Perhaps your company is one of those making those
demands. :^)
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
> Someone described Sequence to me as a bad $3.99 Indian buffet. It has
> everything per say, but when you taste it, you regret your decision.
> Instead, why don't you do one product and do it well?
To the author of this question... wait a minute, it was the BIG EDA
companies who invented the "All You Can Eat Buffet" and FAM models!
(Note: thereby depressing EDA revenues for the last several years!)
For us, one product doesn't satisfy the needs of our power-aware design
customers. Low-power design flows must take a "holistic" approach since
power is a very complex problem, and a "one-size-fits-all" approach is
insufficient, despite what others may tell you. For example, extending
battery life through dynamic power reduction is quite different from
ensuring that your design is timing clean in the face of power grid
voltage drop issues. They both share the word "power" in the problem
statement, but after that the issues and underlying technology concerns
can be very different.
Do we expect competition in the power space? Of course! Power IS the
new performance, i.e. it is dominating design techniques and strategy.
The equation of large players has always been there for over 30 years in
all aspects of the design flow. As an innovative, nimble company you
have to just keep adding value on top of what the big guys offer in the
implementation flow and solve complex problems for customers.
We have been ahead of our time, and despite what some of the new kids on
the block may claim, power is not a simple issue. We are happy to have
pioneered this area of technology (Sequence holds 22 critical patents),
and are pleased that our vision of the importance of power is becoming
reality. Sequence is in the right place at the right time.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
> Sequence has been around for about 10 years. Now everybody is talking
> about power. Why should we believe that you are going to be around after
> the large players (Cadence/Synopsys/Magma) come to the party?
We see a market of about $600 million for all types of analysis and
optimization tools, including power, timing, SI and voltage-drop. Post
9/11, we focused on tightening our operating model when the economy
slowed down and adjusted expenses by shifting resources around the
world. Again, we parlayed the advantages inherent in having a global
business strategy. In 2005 and 2006 as power came to the fore, we began
enjoying rapid sales growth and grew 18% last year and expect 22-23%
growth this year.
It becomes exceedingly clear to customers how power affects other issues
in the design process. We believe that we will grow faster than the
market because our central core competency and focus is on power; everyone
else examines part of the problem (say, voltage drop), or treats power as
a secondary concern to their main business (say, synthesis or P&R). With
power becoming the #1 issue for many end markets, our "power first"
approach will provide greater benefits than the "power as an add-on"
approach. And the delivery of these benefits will result in a growth
business.
We are currently very viable, with more than 150 customers. According
to more than a few analysts and bankers, we are in the top 7 private
EDA companies, out of more than 270.
Sequence may certainly add to its technology portfolio through acquisition,
and will continue to work with partners to provide optimal solutions for
our mutual customers.
But of course the traditional merger with one of the majors cannot be ruled
out, the pendulum has swung over the last 5 years against acquisition and
it is only a matter of time before their appetite returns.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
> Why isn't Sequence part of the Cadence Low Power Design Flow? (I thought
> these two were friends...)
We are customer driven. We add value on top of all three design flows. In
fact, our customers are divided 40% in Cadence, 40% in Synopsys and 20% in
Magma flows. We are members of PFI as well as LPC and have contributed
significant knowledge and time to both committees. We believe in having a
single standard which will enable the industry to innovate rather than spend
precious resources supporting 2 specifications, and it is clear that
customers want the same thing.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
> How can Sequence tools be viable below 45 nm? Isn't this the exclusive
> domain of Cadence, Synopsys, and Magma?
45 nm and below demands a combination of electrical engineering, computer
science and solid state physics -- all Sequence core competencies. We
are already supporting 65 nm designs and well ahead of the cure on 45 nm
in the areas of modeling of statistical variations of interconnects and
so on which is a foundation technology of our product line.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
> How much PowerTheater / early power analysis are you REALLY selling
> with your ESL partners: Bluespec, CoWare, Forte, Synfora, etc...
We work with ESL vendors because it is a key productivity multiplier,
and keeping up with Moore's Law requires us to move to higher levels of
abstraction. We continue to see interest in the design community
although adoption is slower than expected, but we view ESL support as an
investment in the future. We are here to support these partners and
take advantage of the customer design trends! And proud to be the
de-facto standard for power analysis at ESL and RTL.
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