( ESNUG 423 Item 9 ) -------------------------------------------- [02/26/04]
Subject: Questions Primarily For Ray
Ray - You're known to be a guy who wants to look good, so when is Open
Access going to be real? i.e. when will production tools support OA?
- I guess you've given up on System design, by unloading SPW onto
Coware. True? What's your outlook?
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Does Cadence plan on using legal coersion to force Synopsys to support
Open Access like it did with Mentor last year? I am referring
to the settlement agreement over the Quickturn dispute.
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Ray - Cadence is the only large EDA vendor which does not offer any DFM
products. How big do you think is this market and how do you intend to
play it?
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6. What are Cadence's plans for the layout verification tools Diva
and Dracula? Why is the market so slow to adopt Assura?
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Ray, you recently announced a deal to resell 0-in assertions. Cadence is
just developing formal property checking tools, whereas 0-in has been
selling formal property checking tools like Search for years. It's clear
that the next EDA challenge is or will be verification. Cadence has done
a great job of recognizing when purchasing technology is easier/better
than developing it in house. Why didn't Cadence just buy 0-in?
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This question would be geared more so towards Cadence. "You're trying to
get other EDA companies to jump on the Open Access band wagon, at what point
do you stop buying technology and focus on intergrating your own existing
tool suite?"
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I would ask Ray B. what the heck is up with piss poor support from Cadence
AEs and R&D; how they could afford to be rude and cocky with customers?
Also, why did they kill off tools like Heck and FormalCheck and now went
and bought out Verplex.
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When will Cadence acquire Ammocore?
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2) To Bingham and Rhines - where do design services fit
in? A nice additional source of revenue? An opportunity
for Business Development and leverage into tool sales?
Or "it doesn't"?
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In addition to screwing up the version numbering system (and ultimately
going back to the OrCAD numbering), Cadence did virtually nothing to
improve/enhance OrCAD. They took the product away from its roots and
knowledge-base in Oregon, found a number of ways to ship and install it,
and finally tossed it to a NY company that simply wasn't ready to support
the largest installed base of EDA tools. If Mr. Bingham or other EDA execs
don't think we'll remember this episode in future EDA purchases, they need
to reconsider. I know that I would prefer to do business with someone who
wants me to continue to succeed with my current tools instead of someone
who keeps buying and trashing all the tools I use until I'm forced to use
theirs.
I'm a long-time OrCAD user (since the 16-bit DOS days) and I'm sure
everyone would want to ask Mr. Bingham why Cadence bought OrCAD if they
weren't going to have a long-term commitment to the product? Why not just
spin them back out to be OrCAD again when things didn't work out? And
finally, why do we have to go to two websites to get different aspects of
support -- EMA EDA and Cadence?
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I am a former Cadence employee and current investor so I guess this is
directed at Ray:
If Cadence really believes that hiring engineers in India, HR in Utah
gets them no loss in the quality of work and tremendous cost savings,
why don't they take this paradigm one step further and move some of the
executive jobs over there as well. The savings per position should be much
higher given what these people rake in per year for a stock performance
of -50% in the last 5 years.
At they very least they should move these folks out to some boonies (goat
farms in Holliston perhaps) and cut there salaries to reflect the reduced
cost of living. After all, if the Indian and Chinese are smart enough to
develop products they are smart enough to manage the company as well.
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How about the Future of System Verilog? to the Cadence Guy?
I know that the old Get2Chip Compiler was mainly supporting it - but I
heared rumours that the high level synthesis seems to be dumped after
Cadence merged with Get2Chip.
So it would be nice to know what's going on with System Verilog - do
they plan to revive the old high level engine or do they plan to create
a new one (or buy a company that has a nice one available?)
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You could ask Ray why Grant Martin left Cadence Labs when he doesn't have
another job lined up...
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For Cadence, why can't Cadence innovate, and instead buys technology?
For all, is the EDA industry a monopoly? A monopoly that buys it competition
to maintain its monoploy? (e.g. Cadence buys companies so if you want to
play in DA, you have to buy from Cadence. Synopsys is also guilty. It is
the Microsoft model.)
Why do new DA tools always have less capability and reliability than those
they replace? Take Nanoroute, it has taken years (at least two :), to add
in all the features Warp route had.
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How 'bout asking dear old Ray to hand over his ill-gotten millions?
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Ray Bingham: where is Cadence's System Verilog product ?
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I've heard that Cadence tried to slip in a clause that gave them ownership
of any IP which was developed while using their software as part of the
university program. I don't have all the details, but from what I've heard
they weren't very up front about it but tried to slip it in. What does
Ray have to say to this?
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Question to Cadence CEO :
Why is global route of NanoRoute NOT integarted into PKS and why is it
still using Wroute global router? Are there any plans to incorporate this?
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2) To Mentor/Cadence
DFT - what's the market share like - which EDA vendor gets most and what
are really the statistics - what is Cadence doing on this front - is the
IBM DFT unit they procured sometime back paying their returns - any
strategies they would like to share ;-)
5) Cadence
Mentor has been claiming that it's been eating into Cadence market share
in terms of the FPGA support - what's Cadence doing to "encounter" this?
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When is Ray going to shut down Cadence R&D, move maintenance to India and be
honest about simply outsourcing all of Cadence innovation to startups. It
would save Cadence a fortune in costs and is effectively what they do today
anyway.
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For CADENCE: What are you doing to replace the failing to gain market
Assura with a verification tool competitive to Calibre and Hercules? Do you
have any special "forces" working on some new tool? If yes, when
do you envision that they will come out?
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Here's one, primarily for Ray:
Considering Cadence's recent history have you reconsidered whether relying
primarily on purchasing start-ups as a basis for innovation and product
development is a good long term strategy or does short term stock price
considerations take precedence?
Yes. I am a former R&D castoff.
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