It's 5:30 a.m. and my alarm is ringing. As I get out of bed, my wristwatch/communicator notifies me that I have incoming messages from members of my global design team. Before getting dressed, I wander into the kitchen, grab a cup of coffee, and sit down at what I like to call "communications central." Actually, it's just my glass-top, touchscreen, Internet-enabled kitchen table.
With the touch of a finger, I activate the display screen, get onto the web, and check my messages. My design team is ready for final integration of all the blocks in a design project we started just two weeks ago. Not wanting to waste any time, I send a wizard out to all team members to see if they're available. Once I've verified that everyone's online, I call up my Internet-enabled, smart electronic-design-automation (EDA) tools and start my integration.
I need to refill my cup of coffee, so I switch to voice-activation mode on my kitchen table. I proceed aloud, "Team 1, microprocessor core, begin integration now. Team 2, analog core, begin integration now..." One by one, each core of the design falls into place, much like the pieces of a puzzle. Because the design is block-based and created in compliance with all current standards, the EDA tools can automatically and intelligently handle the details related to physically interfacing the blocks. As each block is placed, the software transparently works to verify interfaces.
Integration is continuing when Team 4—the memory-compiler core—hits a snag. The process comes to a halt and Internet error-navigation tools are automatically activated. With those tools, we can click on the error and be quickly transported to an EDA support site. We run a search engine, find a solution to our bug, fix it, and are back up in under 30 minutes. Before I know it, final integration is successfully completed. I say goodbye to team members, select my design files, and forward them to my boss. My project has just been completed. It's now 8:00 a.m., just about time for breakfast.
Sound farfetched? Maybe not. With the Information Age well underway, there's little doubt that the industry is facing another revolution in the making. And it all centers around communication. We're about to see an explosion of connectivity in everything from automobiles to kitchens.
As the workhorse and backbone of today's design and development, EDA will play a crucial role in enabling this connectivity. But it won't go unscathed in the process. In its place, the ultimate realization of design will emerge in its purest form: efficient communication between nontraditional members of design teams and tools, as well as between components and cores. The result will be nothing short of next-generation products blending skillfully masked complexity with optimized performance and functionality—much like that Internet-enabled kitchen table. So is it really outlandish to imagine a design environment with totally connected designers and tools?
Join me as I take you on a voyage of discovery into the not-so-distant future. We'll ride through cyber-space to compose a picture of a virtual design environment that might not be so different from my earlier scenario. And we'll find out why you—the designer—may hold all of the cards when it comes to getting design tools and methodologies to meet your diverse needs.
Smash Forehead On Keyboard To Continue
Do you ever get the feeling that trying to complete a design is a lesson in futility, like hitting your head against the wall? Perhaps you've been in a situation where you've been called into a project already in progress. Its poor documentation forces you to try and decipher someone else's register-transfer-level (RTL) code. Or maybe you're working on a board design and the IC guy on the project hands you a design that you know will make your life a living hell. Sound familiar? Chances are that it does for most of you,
Thankfully, your world is about to change more dramatically than perhaps you can imagine. No longer will you be forced to constantly put out fires or run in circles just to take two steps forward in the design process. A new design environment, prompted by the communications revolution, is slowly beginning to crystallize. In its final form, it will be composed of virtual design teams and new Internet-enabled EDA tools working together in harmony.
The result will be a dramatic change in the way you communicate with fellow designers, outside service providers, and vendors, as well as with your design tools. The communication will be transparent and confined to work at hand. Errors will no longer fall through the cracks. The design process won't be weighted down by misunderstandings between design-team members. Your design also will automatically be documented. That's a feature I'm sure every designer can appreciate. In other words, you'll meet those short time-to-market cycles, and the products that you design will be both high performance and robust.
Reprints
