Coming from the not-so-surpised category.. I don't care for companies that use proprietary systems witch antiquated methodologies. Unfortunately at both my current and my former company we use(d) Nortel hardware. It doesn't play well with everything - and frankly sucks. Am I sad this one's going south - NOPE!
Nortel to file for bankruptcy protection — Facing $107-million interest on debts, former telecom giant will likely be broken up and sold to foreign rivals — Former technology titan Nortel Networks Corp. is expected to file for bankruptcy protection as early as today, sources say …
Last week myself and a senior member of my staff were invited to a hands-on look of Analog Rails. Analog Rails is company whose focus is to "create the best analog and RF environment for the IC circuit designer". The system is built upon Open Access and gives an analog design engineer the complete ability to do both schematic capture, simulation and layout. It nicely automates the more tedious aspects of analog layout while giving the design engineer the complete flexibilty. For example the process of both matching (common-centroid anyone) and wire-widening (based on via size) is done in very automated push button method.
In the last several months Analog Rails have really stepped up the development by starting to integrate with outside tools. For example they now integrated in Veritools into the design framework. This is a big step because it implies that they designed a flexible subsystem which is critical - there is no single solution in IC Design. I would like to see spectre ( -turbo of course ) and calibre integrated but it's not there yet.
Throughout the discussion / demo I began to understand the impact of this. Of course it's built on OA and will nicely integrate with Cadence and manymany others, but something more interesting is afoot. This tool represents a clear methodology shift.. ..The demise of the block level analog layout engineer. Why? First as I said earlier, the layout automation piece is very intuitive and friendly. Plus the smaller technology geometries that analog design is pushing into (<90nm) is forcing simulation earlier (using Cadence) to account for device parasitics (LOD). So the analog engineer is already doing a fair amount of the placement and letting the layout guy clean up the work. But this tool is correct by construction and so the layout is clean from the get-go. So involving a layout person to "clean it up" isn't necessary. There will still need to be layout for macro / chip level integration but block level layout could (will) be going the way of hand-LVS.
There are areas which need to be better defined. From a cad managers perspective - I look at flexibility and integration. The flexibility to align the tool to corporate goals and strategy, and the hooks necessary to integrate it into my existing flow, and (perhaps) migration to this tool.
The flexibility of the tool is fundamentally there but needs better definition. For example: If the company has it's own fab, and the strategy is to use its own fab, how will this tool which claims to not need a PDK get the design constraints from my foundry into their system? The converse is also true - I am a fabless company with a strategy to tape-out to the lowest cost foundry - how do I ensure that the constraints from Dongbu will work with my design. The point is while Analog Rails clearly has the framework so support this, they need to have a clear methodology for how to implement design constraints which the customer may use or opt to use the defaults from Analog Rails.
[UPDATE]: I did receive a bunch of documentation on the methodology for creating these techfiles. It is pretty straight forward and not as difficult as I had imagined.
From the integration side it was better defined but still lacks the clarity for migration. Because the tool can work on OA it should "just work". But how does this system work when an existing layout done in Virtuoso or Laker which doesn't or isn't correct by construction adapt itself? We spoke of the "dummy mode" but I think a bit more clarity on this would be helpful. I not sure this is show stopper - because it would depend on the use model. If you define your flow/methodology such that this is the sole block level tool for a project it could work. If you want to do a mix - well that would have to be tested.
Overall I was very impressed. The tool has certainly matured over the last year. It's flexible sub-system and the ability to tie into other tools gives me reason to want to look further at the tool. It will be a real test to see this tool integrate with the work horses of the IC Design tools, and how easy it is to define a methodology around the tool. Again this tool has some really cool technology under the hood and should make for a fun evaluation. My concern (as any cad manager has) is that our designers are going to eat this up and really want it. That's a good problem to have.
Apparently Ivan Seidenberg just doesn't get it. My suggestion: Focus on one thing and do it really well. Apple develops very end-point good hardware/software. Verizon (and all mobile operators) should focus on a stable "all access" network. Having a company which primary focus ought to be "connectivity - anywhere, anytime" (Hey I like that..) focus part on their attention on the actual end-point device is silly.
What's even more bothersome is the comments he makes regarding Steve Jobs.
As handsets become banking tools and games controllers, he argues, mobile operators can up-end other companies' business models. "It's very cool. And Steve Jobs eventually will get old . . . I like our chances."
There I've said it. I don't know why I speed, I understand the illogic of speeding in that I'm not saving much time. I understand the consequences of speeding that being tickets and potential road rage from someone who doesn't share my view. Further I get I'm wasting gas. I understand all of that. But I still speed. I can't help it - it's wired into me. But if I'm now going to be monitored... Um no thanks.
All I can say is - Here's $10 for the guy that cracks this.. Good luck and godSPEED ;)
Progressive insurance has been testing out the MyRate driving monitoring system for a few years now (it used to be called TripSense), but it's finally taking the system national, bringing pay-as-you-drive insurance into the mainstream. The little blue box plugs into your car's ODB II diagnostic port (all cars made after 1996 have one), and studiously records your driving habits, wirelessly sending the data back to Progressive HQ (it's not clear exactly how). Every six months, Progressive will crunch the numbers and issue a new rate for you based on how you drive -- savings of up to 40 percent are possible. That's pretty tempting, depending on your current rates and driving habits, but we're not so sure we're willing to share that much data for an unspecified discount -- especially since we're confident the MyRate box will get cracked almost immediately.
