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 | |  |  | | | | Cadence Low-Power Solution: a New Paradigm for Low-Power Design
Interview with Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu, Corporate Vice-President, Chief Strategist, Product and Technology
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The community interviewed Chi-Ping Hsu, chief strategist, originator and lead for the Cadence Power Forward Initiative, obtaining from Dr. Hsu a history of the evolution of this Low-power design flow.
Q. Tell us about your background working with Low-Power design software.
A. I had been leading the RTL Compiler Business Unit with the mission to penetrate the Synopsys strong hold in the Logic Synthesis market for the past 3 years. RTL Compiler has grown from the initial 9 customers to over 225 customers during this period with its unique breakthrough in global synthesis technology and a team of passionate experts that consists of people from both Buildgate and Get2Chip R and D teams. RTL Compiler is now used by the high end high performance design markets.
In order to accelerate RTL Compiler’s adoption in the mass market, in addition to high end high performance segment, it became clear that power could be a key fulcrum to combat the inertia of incumbency that has held Synopsys Design Compiler in place even though it is clearly no longer the leading solution. While seeking to exploit the synthesis power opportunity, the journey led to a much bigger picture of what the customers actually needed in order to complete the complex task of low-power design. With the belief that further proliferation of RTL Compiler in the mass market has to leverage Cadence’s technology strength and breadth in solutions, the resultant blending of customer needs and Cadence technology breadth and know-how was the Power Forward Initiative and the Common Power Format. We are delivering a coordinated solution whose scope is unprecendeted in the history of EDA. I am quite proud of what the team has accomplished.
The overwhelming proactive and aggressive support and participation from across the company is truly amazing. This shows the tremendous power when there is a clear vision match among all different R&D/Marketing/Sales organizations. We have been able to make significant progress in all fronts even without an official Power Forward organization. There is no reporting structure and only passionate people working together voluntarily.
Q. What is the one new thing engineers designing for Low-Power should know about the new Cadence Low-Power flow?
A. One thing? It is holistic and an historic event for the industry. Low-power design considerations permeate throughout the entire design flow process. It is inextricable from the other aspects of completing a design such as timing closure and test. Adding a point tool does not solve the low-power design challenges. Every step of the way, there are new capabilties and methods that are required. We have just laid out the foundation for the next 5-10 years of innovation in the industry.
Q. Tell us about the scope?
A. Just within Cadence, there are eleven different product development groups that have been involved, as well as marketing, industry alliances, TFO, and sales. In addition, there are over 25 major customers and partners participating and contributing to this industry wide effort. Design with power begins at the customer’s system-level planning stage and extends from design, verification and implementation all the way to silicon. What has been incredible to me is the unprecedented level of cooperation on creating a holistic solution across the company and the industry. The level of enthusiasm of the whole industry – customers, partners, CEO/presidents, managers, designers, R&D, marketing, sales, TFO, and others – is historical and unprecedented. I am very excited about the dividends that Cadence will enjoy from this work in 2007 and years to come.
Q. Now tell us about a couple more features that users will find helpful when creating their low-power designs.
A. This initiative is about a complete new paradigm for low-power design solution and not a feature or two in different products. In many aspects, we are enabling the automation of low-power design that had not been available before. For example, low-power functional verification was largely done with an error-prone manual approach and with the Power Forward Initiative we are enabling functional simulation of power modes and transitions the first time in history and similarly in other areas such as Test, Emulation, Formal Verification, etc.
Q. Now some personal questions. How do you concentrate when working? Any tricks?
A. The one thing comes to mind is to always focus on the overall strategy. If you don’t have a clear strategy, then your team doesn’t have strategy. Without a clear strategy, you can not set your priority straight and your team will then be tactically driven by day to day issues and floating without overall direction. I handle my own calendar to minimize day to day operational burdens. Usually walking around the office areas and brainstorming with key experts are great ways to get started. With a clear strategy set, tenacious focus on removing any and all obstacles leads to clear paths of execution and provides structure for success.
Q. Where do you do your best thinking?
A. My best thinking usually occurrs when I have time for a couple of weeks without routine meetings. Normally good things happen when I am left alone. Good ideas reveal themselves in many ways.
Q. What do you do after a long day or week of working on Low-Power problems to relieve your stress levels?
A. Exercise is great stress reliever for me. I enjoy regular time on the basketball and tennis courts. And, of course, time with my family keeps the hectic world in perspective.
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About the author
Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu is Corporate Vice President, Chief Strategist, Product & Technology at Cadence. He was the originator and continues to lead the Power Forward Initiative. He was formerly President and COO of Get2Chip, before merging with Cadence Design Systems in April 2003. Prior to Get2Chip, Chi-Ping was Executive Staff of Technology and Products (CTO) at Avant! for seven years, where he played a crucial role in the growth of the Avant! business from $7M to $380M. He was leading the engineering, product strategies, marketing, business development, M&A, and strategic investments. Prior to Avant!, Chi-Ping held senior management positions in both engineering and marketing at Hughes, Cadence, and Pie/Quickturn. Dr. Hsu holds a Ph.D. degree in EECS from University of California, Berkeley, and BSEE degree from National Taiwan University. |
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