EDA: not boring enough

EDA runs in cycles, and I have been in it long enough to see a few of them. The down cycle we are seeing is due to parity at the big 3. But the problems EDA solves will only get more complex. What is great about EDA is its high barrier to entry, that is if you have a profitable niche AND the ability to position it in the market. Marketing and sales is just as important as the technology itself. A lot of money is out there to be made in EDA, but timing is everything.

Boring businesses are in mature industries. These typically lack innovation. Lack of VC funding should not denote that EDA is mature. EDA follows IC design trends and will only mature when IC development processes become mature. The real problem is that we engineers have prostituted ourselves to work on "cool" technologies. When we work only for $$$ instead of deriving some perceived thrill from the work, will be treated as the valuable players we are. After all salesmen and reps work for money not coolness.

''I think the issue is that there is way too much overhead and beauracracy in the industry and too much expenses for Sales, HR, Entertainment and Travel. If it was more open like the internet then engineers would come just to play'' Maybe in some respects. I have engineering degree and I am involved in sales and some aspects of marketing for a niche part of the test market. However you are completely wrong if you imply that sales people are not required. Most SME''s and start-ups fall on their back-sides due to poor sales and marketing strategies. Sadly the world don''t work with engineer''s skill and goodwill only - you need the evil sales rep ! But I agree they mut be costed sensibly.

I can relate to that - I look after our calibration, the very un-cool offshoot of unfashionable QA. As the only person doing it, I have a certain amount of security. I wouldn't mind tring exciting though.

Cobol is valued because a lot of complex programs, specially databases, where written with and are not easy to update or redo in more recent languages. Legacy in critical applications! if it is not broke do not fix it kind of logic there :P

Yes Paul, the greatest asset in EDA is the challenge. As one of my former engineers exclaimed one day, "that problem is NP-ridiculous". I actually managed to rehire some EDA bail-outs after the first dot gone blowout. Their feedback on returning is that EDA problems are more challenging and there is greater satisfaction for them when they solve some them. Yet several of those became disenchanted and returned to the internet for Web2.0 and they are now happily ensconed in the Gplex. With Intel's scaling limits talk today it clearly indicates that materials will not come to the rescue. More innovation among circuit designers and EDA developers are needed. I don't think there are too many engineers as much as there is a lack of innovation. Everywhere you look there are exciting problems to solve, and customers who will eagerly adopt it to get an edge in their competitive market. I think the issue is that there is way too much overhead and beauracracy in the industry and too much expenses for Sales, HR, Entertainment and Travel. If it was more open like the internet then engineers would come just to play.

Great image. Maybe it applied to the conversion from steam to electricity. The problem today is the reduced number of engineering jobs available. This shows up in the job recruitment definitions. They tend to be very specific. This implies that there is assumed to be a large number of engineers available from which one can "cherry pick" the precise candidate. Another indication: ever heard the term "overqualified"? It is applied to engineers over 50, and sometimes to those over 40 with more than sufficient skills for a job. I know many real people that have been tagged with just this label as a reason to reject them for a job. Think about it. Why is someone who is "too" qualified for a job a bad choice? Perhaps the recruiter assumes that the lowest cost hire will be one that exactly matches the job description, with nothing left over that might cost more. Again, compatible with the idea that engineers are - literally - a dime a dozen.

"I?ve read (but not verified) that one very well paid group of consultants are people who do Cobol programming. Everyone wants to program next generation web applications using AJAX and Python, not some crusty programming language designed in the 1950s. " How do you square that with the stereotype of the engineer who is past 40 and can't find work because he didn't keep his skills up to date?