> Now it's a death watch to see out of: Aprio, ClearShape, Ponte, Brion,
> Pyxis, Takumi, Nannor, Blaze DFM, Prediction, Invarium, Pulsic, SoftJin,
> Luminescent, Sagantec, KLA-Tencor, ChipMD, and LogicVision who is going to
> be let into one of these lifeboats and who's going to drown.
>
>     - from http://www.deepchip.com/wiretap/061003.html


From: Jeremy Birch <jeremy.birch=user domain=pulsic not calm>

Hi, John,

I agree that the DFM market seems very crowded, but along with most of my
colleagues, I was a little surprised to see that my own Pulsic listed as
being in the DFM market.

We are, and have been for a long time, in the routing and placement for
analog/mixed signal/custom digital market, and although there are elements
to this that unavoidably address yield, Pulsic is NOT selling its tools as
primarily DFM nor are our customers buying them as primarily DFM.  And, of
course, we are running on revenue, which is a good sign that we are actually
shifting product rather than dreaming up niche products.

The term DFM is much abused -- if you look at what other companies are
counting as DFM, it's everything from backend mask processing to simulation.
I would argue that any tool that does anything to improve yield is probably
a player in the DFM market, but that does not mean that DFM is the main
reason to buy a given tool.

A lot of this market crowding is due to over-enthusiastic marketing droids
adding "DFM" to every piece of sales literature, and I suspect we have been
guilty of that, too.


> ... Once the Big 4 own the DFM space, KLA-Tencor/Pulsic/Sagantec et al
> will have to defer to those widely used DFM solutions vs. stupidly dumping
> money in doing duplicate homegrown DFM work.  Pulsic will refocus back
> into P&R...  ...I still stand by my prediction that most of those 19 other
> DFM start-ups will either be dead or absorbed within the next 18 months.
>
>     - from http://www.deepchip.com/wiretap/061003.html

Of course, some companies are being VC funded to go primarily after a DFM
product.  You are right to say that the pure play DFM start-ups are going to
have a hard time surviving on their own, and there will be a shake out, with
failures, mergers, acquisitions, etc.

    - Jeremy Birch
      Pulsic Limited                             Bristol, UK

         ----    ----    ----    ----    ----    ----   ----

From: John Cooley <jcooley=user domain=zeroskew hot gone>

Hi, Jeremy,

OK, maybe Pulsic isn't a DFM start-up.  Could you then please explain:


    "Lyric will provide India's reputable design and manufacture houses
     with access to Lyric as a valuable DFM and efficiency tool."

         - S. Ramachandran of D'gipro, Pulsic's India distributor
           in your 01/24/2006 press release


    "... users can take tutorials on hierarchical floorplanning, routing,
     placement, DFM, ECO, timing, OpenAccess and Process Rule support."

         - in your 07/18/2006 pre-DAC press release


    "Key features: ... - Yield and DFM aware routing."

         - in your current Datapath write-up


    "Support for DFM - slotting and density routing and checks."

         - in your current UniRoute write-up


    "DFM specific layout capabilities and checking including density
     and slotting routing."

         - in your current Lyric write-up


    "Coupled with UniRoute, yield and DFM issues are improved which
     are crucial for memory design."

         - in your current UniRoute Spine Routing write-up


    "Coupled with the Automatic Router, yield and DFM issues are improved
     which are crucial for memory design."

         - in your current Lyric Memory write-up


    "Story title: A new route to improving time-to-yield"

         - Mark Waller, Pulsic VP of R&D, in Chip Design Magazine


Google "pulsic dfm" and you get 713 results.  Google "pulsic yield" and you
will get 658 results.  What's also funny, Jeremy, is I found the last page
of a presentation from the August 2006 San Jose Flash Memory Summit:

         "Specialised routing techniques deliver smallest area,
          highest yield, and best performance:

                 - shape based routing
                 - spine and stitch routing
                 - DFM aware routing

which was given by some guy named "Jeremy Birch" who works at Pulsic!  :)

    - John Cooley
      ESNUG/DeepChip.com                         Holliston, MA


P.S. And despite my smart ass reply, I agree with your intent.  Pulsic is
     primarily a shape-based router company.  When this DFM fad goes out of
     fashion, you guys won't die.  It was just too fun researching this!