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Message From The President
During the recent Design Automation Conference in San Diego, I had the opportunity to speak with numerous EDA companies that are members of Si2. I learned that many recent members did not fully understand how Si2 operates, or what sets us apart from other organizations. I'd like to take this opportunity to provide a top level view of this multifaceted organization so that all members understand how to extract the most from their membership.
Supplier-User Partnerships To Address End-User Requirements
Si2 has served the semiconductor and EDA industries for 18 years, under a federal charter that provides special protections from antitrust lawsuits for collaborations among our members. Originally founded by large semiconductor IDM's, today Si2 now has over 70 more EDA companies added to its ranks. While Si2 believes in early and tight partnerships with commercial suppliers to achieve our mission, our Bylaws ensure that the priorities of end-user companies are considered as key imperatives in the overall standardization process . In fact, all Si2 coalitions, and most working groups, are chaired by end-users. With few exceptions, suppliers prefer this arrangement because it ensures the resulting standards will have real market traction with their customers.
For example, seven of the 10 annually-elected Board of Directors seats are designated for end-user companies, two companies are designated for suppliers, and one seat is reserved for smaller companies with revenues under $100 million. All seats are open to Si2's full corporate membership. This structure was designed to balance a variety of perspectives, but with primary emphasis on end-users who are responsible to make all the supplier components work together in flows.
Holistic Approach To Adoption Success
Si2's mission to improve interoperability and integration across IC design flows is centered on successful adoption, where approval of a specification may be necessary - but in many cases not sufficient. Our focus on adoption is all about return on investment for members, and this goal drives everything we do at Si2, from careful selection of proposed projects, to a holistic approach for active projects that includes collaborative software, training materials in multiple formats, workshops, marketing and communications, licensing and legal, Web infrastructure, and an emphasis on flows, not just “point-tool” formats.
Si2 is a highly technical, engineering-centric organization, yet we choose to take a holistic business approach to delivering solutions for the industry. While Si2 may be a nonprofit organization, we realize that most of our members are not. Si2's future depends on retaining the confidence of our members. We do this through selection of appropriate high-value projects that fit our unique flow-centric emphasis, professional and responsible management for every project, engaging with leaders across the entire supply chain to improve quality of deliverables and likelihood of adoption success, and supporting the standard with a full ecosystem of software utilities, reference flows, training, and custom services.
Dedicated Engineering Expertise
Si2 provides active program management services for every coalition and working group, offloading administrative logistics so that domain experts can focus on deliverables. Si2 engineering includes experienced industry veterans with semiconductor expertise spanning from process design kits (PDKs) and transistor level circuit design through physical design, up to logical and even system-level design. Our software expertise spans all major programming and scripting languages, relational database technology, software architecture design, and application programming interfaces. Si2 engineering services include in-house development of standards specifications and technical reference guides, technical training classes and labs, custom web-site design and development, and full-time IT support for all dedicated servers and web applications.
Flexible Project Structure
Technical projects under Si2 may take one of several different forms. Major standardization programs requiring flow integration among differing domains of expertise are structured as coalitions, while a simpler Technical Advisory Board (TAB) structure is used for format-only standards and service contracts (such as LEF/DEF and Liberty). All coalitions and TABs have specified technical objectives and deliverables. However, councils are a form of special interest group that do not have defined standardization deliverables; a council permits a facilitated environment for members with shared interests to meet and discuss standards-related topics. Working groups and study groups may be formed as needed by any project to address or research specific issues.
Standards Complexity Tracks Design Complexity
Just as semiconductor design and manufacturing has become more complex and intertwined, so too has the development of effective EDA standards. Device physics has forced a coupling between manufacturing and design that requires data communications standards that can bridge this gap securely in a "fab-lite" world. For example, our new Low-Power Coalition, by taking a flow-oriented approach, recognizes the need for low-power cell information in libraries. At the same time, our Open Modeling Coalition demonstrated at DAC a “joint data model” API interface permitting OpenAccess applications to exchange incrementally updated design data with executable libraries and use the calculated results provided by those libraries. In addition, our DFM Coalition is planning to leverage the statistical and encapsulation features from the Open Modeling Coalition to support fab process model sharing requirements. It is critical to take an interconnected approach to architecting standards, because IC design and manufacturing information has become so tightly interconnected.
Intellectual Property And Licensing Trends
Another complexity that has recently surfaced in EDA standards is concern over intellectual property (“IP”). There are several reasons. First, semiconductor design and EDA design methodology continues to increase in complexity, thereby demanding standards of increased sophistication and complexity as well -- and thus IP of greater value. Second, recent standards-related lawsuits such as those involving RAMBUS, SCO, and QUALCOMM have heightened sensitivities, especially among large semiconductor companies with large portfolios of IP. Third, recent EDA standards topics (such as low-power and modeling) have demonstrated that patent positions now exist among competing EDA companies as well. Taken together, it is essential to implement IP policies that represent current best practices in order to ensure that today's investment in standards development will not hit adoption barriers tomorrow.
When companies come together and commit to a standard, they do not expect that standard to splinter in divergent and confusing directions, diluting it's value. Si2 prevents splintering through an open community licensing model. "Open community" is rooted in the open source model, but adds special protections to ensure that the industry determines a singular new version for the standard that all use together through a "one company, one-vote" process. This "anti-forking" feature also extends to software reference implementations of the standard, parsers, and certain supporting software utilities as well.
During last week's Board meetings, one Si2 board member succinctly summarized the Si2 value proposition for standards as “the best place to get complex things done". We hope that you agree, and look forward to working together with you to achieve our important mission for the future of our industry.
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