( ESNUG 423 Item 6 ) -------------------------------------------- [02/26/04]
Subject: Linux vs. Solaris, Opteron vs Itanium, 64-bit Questions
You want to put them on edge? Ask them early in the panel to share the
performance of their tools on the Opteron vs Itanium, Xeon, and Sparcs.
Then trot out the pricing numbers you've slyly worked up on the side.
Consider: If you were an EDA vendor, you've seen a new platform that just
blows everything else out of the water. How do you contain your enthusiasm
about it enough to avoid pissing off your two biggest platform
manufacturers? Or, do you care? One way or another, it's a high-wire act.
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5. Which platform OS will they be developing to? HP, Sun, Linux, or Windows?
If Linux, which distributions?
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Here is one that is obviously on my mind:
When will your software be ported to X86-64 ?
I ask this partly because I work at AMD ;) but mostly because
the great speed up we have seen on the few CAD tools that have
been ported (e.g. Calibre on 4way-32G Opteron systems Rock!).
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4. When will all of the tools from these companies run on Intel/AMD?
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Are Verilog simulators a commodity? As a customer I want to be able to keep
Synopsys and Cadence (and Mentor, if they were really a player) in a
price/performance battle. Vendors want to confuse me with features. Will
they continue to invest if they're interchangable commodity that I desire?
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1. Ask about 64-bit support update. We're hitting memory limits on
simulations (gate level), synthesis, and static timing. Unfortunately,
we're using mostly Synopsys based tools (VCS, Synopsys, Primetime).
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What is their company's strategy for supporting 64-bit Linux? What
hardware (uP) and what Linux OS?
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I want to know when they are going to support 64-bit Simulators and what
the simulator companies are doing to speed up convergence on assertion
languages.
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3) With the impending release of Chip-Multiprocessors (CMP's)
- Sun Niagara, Intel, IBM etc... as a prominent platform
how will EDA companies, adjust and modify their software
licensing model (ie. cost) to recognize the reality of multiple
threads (ie. instances of their app) running simultaneously
on the same processors.
4) Is Solaris dead? Is Linux the be all end all? Is so, when
will all the tools be available on Linux. If not, why not?
5) When will apps truly become multi-threaded?
6) Does ReShape hint at the future of EDA - providing COP benefits
by automating the integration and running of disparate tools
and allowing each new project to pick the best point tools?
7) Will EDA R&D always be a case of small companies developing
point tools to address cutting edge problems (ie the better
mouse trap) and then the three major players vying to
acquire these companies and technologies?
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When will we have a tool that lets us to do RTL design, design constraints,
timing analysis, insert assertions, and add verification hooks, without
learning obscure syntax or learn new point tools?
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