Walden Rhines, chairman and CEO of semiconductor and system design tool firm Mentor Graphics talks about hot spots in design

Q. Is the semiconductor industry hitting the wall with the end of Moore’s Law?

Rhines: Moore’s Law is alive and well, and likely to continue so at least through 15nm (semiconductor process geometries). This will be possible because of continuing innovation with manufacturing-aware design, which is becoming increasingly critical throughout the flow, from place and route to verification, extraction, design-for-manufacture enhancement, computational lithography, and mask preparation.

Q. What do you see as the hot spots of innovation in electronic design today?

Rhines: Manufacturing-aware design is one, in areas such as place and route driven by multi-corner multi-mode analysis. The move towards higher levels of abstraction is driving transaction-level modelling and ESL (electronic system level) design. Verification continues to be a hot spot as designs keep getting larger and more complex.

Q. What has been behind the growth in start-up activity in the UK over the past five years?

Rhines: A pool of really innovative talent. That, combined with the fabless manufacturing model and the design tools to optimise design for manufacturing variability, has led to dozens of highly successful companies. Collaboration has added to the success, with cooperative sharing of experience among start-ups through organisations such as Cre8Ventures, a Mentor Graphics sponsored entity to connect start-ups with funding, expertise and design infrastructure.

Q. What effect will globalisation of design have on the electronics industry in the UK?

Rhines: Globalisation leads to specialisation. The UK has many innovative companies, a vibrant microelectronics start-up community and strong niche application domain expertise in areas such as analogue/mixed-signal and wireless. The UK also has strengths in other areas such as electronics for automotive and aerospace, system design and communications. Globalisation brings a larger base of customers, applications and opportunities to apply the UK’s innovative product design talents.

Q. Unlike some other EDA companies Mentor seems to have identified the automotive industry as a particular area for investment in design software. What motivated that move?

Rhines: We try to focus in areas that others overlook. While automotive companies have aggressively adopted virtual design technology for mechanical design, the electrical/electronic design aspects have been slow to evolve.  With the rapid growth of electronic complexity there is a wealth of opportunities for enterprise automation of the design of automotive electrical systems. Much of this technology exists but must be adapted to the very complex system problem of coordinating thousands of suppliers and complex embedded software with extremely high reliability and serviceability requirements.