CAD Tools Evolution

The role of CAD Tools and Systems for the design of integrated circuits is nowadays critical for the success of the design activity. IC manufacturers consider today CAD technology as important as process technology due to the impact of CAD and design automation on the productivity of the designer community and on the capability of exploitation of what silicon technology can offer. The tighter and tighter link between IC and system design has given a new dimension to the problem of electronic design automation. The hardware revolution of the Unix platforms is giving a big computing power at low cost allowing the utilization of complex human interface paradigms and of more and more accurate algorithms. The role of Europe in the overall world-wide CAD business is very limited today. In the next years either Europe will offer its key contribution or will fully depend on the US in the EGAD area. It´s up to us.