CEO Interview: Cadence's Tan plans to build on analog strength

Christoph Hammerschmidt, EETimes Europe
(06/04/2009 4:47 AM EDT)

Christoph Hammerschmidt caught up with Lip-Bu Tan (right), CEO of EDA company, Cadence Design Systems Inc., at the recent CDN Live company event held in Munich, Germany.

EETimes: Cadence is currently emerging from a major management shake-up, accompanied by a loss of management talent. In addition, Cadence has lost its long-term position as the market leader in the EDA software market. Is Cadence falling back in terms of innovation and product quality?

EETimes: Over many years, there was a kind of business model established in the EDA industry in which the larger companies drove their innovation by taking over enterprising startups. Is this business model running out of steam?

EETimes: How does the industry move towards the fab-lite and fabless business models affect the EDA industry and Cadence?

EETimes: Which topics have the highest priority " which developments are the most urgent ones for Cadence?

EETimes: And in terms of technology, where do you see a need for action?

EETimes: In your keynote speech [at CDN Live], you mentioned openness. This could mean modularity, open interfaces, and exchangeability of functional blocks. Would such a concept in the EDA industry be feasible " and would it be desirable from your perspective?

EETimes: In Europe, the industry is more application oriented, more vertically structured than perhaps in other places of the world. This potentially leads to a certain fragmentation of technological expertise and affects our approach to how we implement solutions. How could the EDA industry take care of this situation " wouldn't this require more open platforms with features such as open data formats and open interfaces?

EETimes: When do you expect to return to profitability?

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