CDNLive! Crunchy, munchy & proud ...
What did you miss if you weren't in the Santa Clara Convention Center this morning? You missed the moment that CDNLive! went live. At last, the long-awaited Cadence Designer Network Conference opened its doors with 500 of the company's closest friends and neighbors there to inaugurate the event. CEO Mike Fister launched the 3-day conference at just past 8 AM with remarks in the main auditorium of the Convention Center. He was followed on stage for the next 90 minutes, first by IBM's Bernie Meyerson and then by Morgan Stanley's Mark Edelstone. (Bernie's talk was good, but a bit recycled if you already heard him speak for an hour as a keynoter at DAC in June and again for an hour as a keynoter at Semicon West in July. Mark's talk, on the other hand, I found quite compelling. And, given a choice between Bernie's stand-up comedy routine and Mark's dignified laying out of the facts as he sees them surprisingly enough, I'd prefer Mark. Decide for yourself. Both keynotes are available on-line.) Then there was a break and time for the Beautiful People to saunter over to the Westin Hotel for the Press Event associated with the conference a special 90-minute presentation just for the folks from the Press & Analyst communities who got to hear up close and personal from various Cadence staffers about the major announcements that went out on the wires today regarding the company's newest developments and collaborations. About 60 people attended. Speakers at the Press Event included VP Marc Levitt talking about Cadence's Physical Verification System, VP Kelly Perey talking about the company's "kits" approach to design in particular, the debut of the Cadence AMS Methodology Kit, and VP Eric Filseth talking about new product segmentation within the Encounter platform corresponding to the various user markets characterized by number of gates and/or process nodes plus the new Masterplan macro placement tool that's been folded into Encounter. Mike Fister, of course, had a few opening remarks for the Press & Analysts and then left, but not before turning over the MC duties to his Senior VP Ajay Malhotra. At the end of the presentations from Levitt, Perey, and Filseth, there was a 30-minute Q&A session facilitated by Malhotra. There was no dirth of questions from the long-time Cadence watchers in the audience, but all's well that ends well because immediately afterwards, the bulk of the Beautiful People made their way into a small dining room nearby to enjoy a lovely luncheon buffet. After lunch which was enhanced by an animated bit of repartee between journalists, analysts, and accommodating Cadence execs there was time to explore the CDNLive! Exhibit Hall back in the Convention Center. By my count, there were 50+ companies with booths strutting their stuff there, including Synopsys, Mentor, and Magma. There was a pleasant energy level on the Exhibit Hall floor plus free lunch for everybody in attendance and a relaxed ambiance for those inclined to stroll slowly through to observe the thing. So, why crunchy, munchy & proud? ******************************** Crunchy Well for one, Mike Fister's really an interesting guy. He seems determined not to affect that polished dare I say, imperious stance of the well-heeled Silicon Valley CEO. His speaking style in the main auditorium this morning, and again at the Press Event, was definitely low-key, almost implausibly self-effacing. But, I think I've finally figured out that this schtick of his is for real. Perhaps his manner, which in the past I've interpreted as either grim or ill at ease, is something else entirely. I'm beginning to believe he means it when he says he knows the technical challenges are tough because he's mostly a long-time chip guy ("I've shipped billions of chips," he told me this afternoon in referring to his many years at Intel) who's now in the business of providing tools to his former compadres that he firmly believes will make their day-to-day lives easier, in the short run and the long run. Okay, okay, okay I'm not selling out here, but it's hard not to be drawn to a CEO when he says in the opening moments of his user meeting, "Me and the five thousand other people inside of Cadence are focused on time to market, complexity management, and design team productivity." There's a certain gritty reality to that phrasing that I think kinda works even if his high school English teacher wouldn't be happy with the syntax and it definitely transcends the spit & polish, color-coordinated, music-enhanced Cadence Dog & Pony shows that we in the press have been subjected to in the past. Think about it John Cooley has built an entire constituency on the theory that engineers like it raw and real. Given enough time, I think even Cooley-ites might come to see a certain kindred spirit in the Mike Fister we've all waited so long to get to know. Of course, I could be wrong about this but, oh well. ******************************** Munchy So about today's technology announcements. You've got the press releases. I've got copies of the PowerPoint presentations. We've all got access to the taped transcripts of the morning's Press Event. So, if you're a user, decide for yourself if there's something new to chew on here. If you're a competitor, decide for yourself if Cadence is throwing down the gauntlet within the EDA industry. Are they indeed attempting to provide larger and larger buckets of beatitudes to the masses yearning to breath free be it in physical verification, market-specific design kits, or access to re-packaged tools that have been priced/segmented according to the needs of the .25 micron to .15 micron crowd (that would be Encounter L), the needs of the 130-nanometer to 65-nanometer crowd (that would be Encounter XL), or the needs of the bleeding/edgy creative types who live dangerously, somewhere below the 65-nanometer threshold of pain (that would be the as-yet-unavailable Encounter GXL). [Doesn't it just send shivers down your spine, that Encounter GXL thing? Doesnt it sound like some kind of New Age weapon, or maybe a sci-fi deployment vehicle of some sort? No? Well, maybe not.] Anyway, the people presenting at the Press Event this morning Kelly Perey, Eric Filseth, and Marc Levitt seem like really sincere folks. In fact, Eric sat with Gabe Moretti, Daya Nadamuni, Tets Maniwa and me at lunch following his presentation. He told us that his work's very interesting and that if there weren't real technical progress being made in the various development groups at Cadence, people simply wouldn't stay. They'd move on to other companies where they could actually work on problems of merit. It was interesting to hear him say that. I will say, however, that I'm no more convinced now than I was at the outset of the day that there's actually any thrilling and/or breathtakingly disruptive technology coming out of Cadence in all of today's announcements. But I'll also say who am I to say? Maybe new business models, revised tool packages, improved prescience in floorplanning aren't glamorous at first glance, but they are the stuff of a company that's moving forward. And they're particularly the stuff of a company that's renewed its commitment to moving forward with a freshly unified vision and a newly coordinated voice. Don't look now, but I think that might be Cadence. Of course, I could be wrong about this but, oh well. ******************************** Proud So about that Exhibit Hall. I'm kinda mystified as to why Synopsys, Mentor and Magma would want to be there? Aren't these guys sworn competitors to Cadence and each other? (Please note, of course, that the Synopsys booth which was large and very visible right at the main door was as physically distant as possible from the somewhat-smaller Magma booth, which was located at the far other end of the ballroom/hall.) What do S, M & M think they're accomplishing by exhibiting at CDNLive! ? Well, I think one of two things is happening here.
After all build it and people will come. Cadence seems determined to build a "destination" conference venue and although 500 people registered for this week's conference may not be numbers to write home about, Mike Fister told me that this is just the start. He expects this thing to grow, ala the Intel Developers Conference, which he tells me he helped to establish and promote. Yep Cadence seems determined to "build it" and they seem determined to prove that "people will come." It looks like Synopsys, Mentor, and Magma believe this and they can't afford not to be part of the action. "Swallow your pride and participate." I gotta think that, at the end of the day, this was the sentiment that went down within each of the companies in considering whether or not to be involved. Of course, I could be wrong about this but, oh well. ******************************** And finally, a point of punctuation (if not intellectual property) So about this exclamation point thing. Did we, or did we not, know our old friends from Avanti as the folks with the exclamation point in their name? Avant! ( best said with enthusiasm and a right-handed fist gesture up and to the left.) I know that Avant! got absorbed into Synop! sys. Nonetheless, I think an industry as small as the EDA industry can only afford to have one exclamation point in the neighborhood, even if it's a legacy exclamation point. I also think that the folks at Cadence must agree with me. Because although this week's conference is called CDNLive! if you look through the materials distributed at the event, that exclamation point seems to have gone missing on most of the logos and even on the give-away book bag. And, I think you and I will agree that's for the best. Avast! and Avant! It's CDNLive! That's just way, way too much energy and enthusiasm for a way, way cool industry that wants to be gritty, real and relevant to the common working stiff an industry who wants to appeal to "manly" men and women, design engineers who demand honesty and straight shooting, who don't like ties or suits or market-speak or exclamation points.
Of course, I could be wrong about this but, oh well. ********************************
Peggy Aycinena owns and operates EDA Confidential. She can be reached at peggy@aycinena.com |