Industry Expert Blogs

Everyone in EDA is familiar with the phenomenon where the internal testing of a tool all goes perfectly, the initial customer checkout flights of the tool go well. Then when that same customer starts to use the tool for real, on a real design, all sorts of issues emerge. This problem is not restricted to EDA. In technology in general, it is only when a product is used for mission-critical purposes that it truly gets shaken down.

One solution to this conundrum, when it is applicable, is for the company developing the product to use it for their own development. The somewhat unusual phrase for this is "eating your own dogfood." It even has its own Wikipedia page. The most likely source of the term is from TV ads in the 1970s for Alpo, when actor Lorne Greene said that he fed Alpo to his own dogs.

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