A few weeks ago I went to the ARM TechCon3, formerly the ARM Developer Conference (Still can’t figure out why they changed the name, now it makes no sense). I went because I was getting a flood of requests for interviews. When I was plowing through the information, none of it really caught my attention, but the PR guy for Imagination Technologies was particularly persistent. When I asked for some details about what we might talk about, he directed me to a couple of web pages with typical marketing blather: lots of unsubstantiated hyperbole, or as the Bard put it …

My search for financial significance in EDA took me to Dr. Martin Vlach, CEO of Lynguent.  Their website states that:

“Lynguent was created because we believed we can improve your AMS design flow, improving your productivity and reducing overall engineering and manufacturing costs.”

Talking to Dr. Vlach you know you’re talking to a guy who knows his technology and that it provides value to customers.  When pressed, however, he said the actual monetary significance of their product was “beyond what he thinks about.”  He cares about making engineers efficient, which is a great thing.  But it doesn’t help the CFO …

OK, NOW we’re talking.  I talked with Dermott Lynch, vice president of marketing for Silicon Frontline Technology about the company’s parasitic extraction technology and got the usual pitch about what was obviously a very innovative product.  That’s what you come to expect from an EDA startup: great technology.  Then I asked the question no one likes.  I asked how much this tool meant to the bottom line for a fabless company.  AND I GOT AN ANSWER!  Could have knocked me over with a balled up sock.  Silicon Frontline tool shear off more than 5 percent of the cost of bringing a new chip to market.  When the minimum …

Prakash Narain has been running the privately held EDA verification company Real Intent for the past decade.  Hard to call that a start-up, but there you are.  Any company in EDA that has survived for 10 years has a few things going for it.  We talked briefly on what Real Intent is all about and then got into what I care about — the bottom line. …