Four Key Insights

Cadence created the new economic model for CAD companies. Its genesis can be traced to four insights developed by Richard Newton and Sangiovanni-Vincentelli: UNIX-based Workstations would dominate scientific and engineering computing. Software-

Doris Kilbane

Oct. 20, 2005

Cadence created the new economic model for CAD companies. Its genesis can be traced to four insights developed by Richard Newton and Sangiovanni-Vincentelli:

UNIX-based Workstations would dominate scientific and engineering computing.
Software-only companies, instead of the hardware/software combination businesses dominating then, would be the computer-aided-design (CAD) leaders.
Companies with a unified database and user interface would have a competitive advantage when they needed to integrate different tools from different sources. This eventually led to the OpenAccess database made available by Cadence as open-source software.
The greatest competitive advantage would come from synthesis tools such as automatic routing and placement.

Synopsys, the second EDA company founded largely by Newton and Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, subsequently came from the desire to extend the synthesis approach to the optimized transformation of register-transfer-level languages to gates in electronic design.

About the Author

Doris Kilbane

Doris Kilbane is a contributing editor to Supply Chain Technology News, Logistics Today, and Operations and Technology magazines, as well as a freelance writer for Automatic Identification Manufacturers (AIM) association and various business software and technology companies. Previously, she was the managing editor of Automatic I.D. News, now Frontline Solutions, for 10 years. Presently, she is also interim executive director for a volunteer program helping senior citizens called Faith in Action Medina County Caregivers.