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What's driving the EDA industry today and where is it headed in the near future? Some high-level answers to these questions came from the EDA Consortium (EDAC) annual CEO Forecast panel Feb. 29, 2012. EDA industry leaders shared their views about 3D-ICs, SoC integration, power management, industry growth drivers, the structure of the EDA industry, and the geographical location of design work 5 years out.

As in previous years, the panel included CEOs of the three largest EDA companies - including Lip-Bu Tan (Cadence), Wally Rhines (Mentor Graphics), and Aart de Geus (Synopsys). It also included Ed Cheng, CEO of Gradient Design Automation, and Simon Segars, executive vice president and general manager for ARM's Physical IP division. All of the panelists serve on the EDAC Board of Directors.

The panel was moderated by Ed Sperling, editor-in-chief of the System-Level Design

community of Chip Design Magazine. The format was very different from previous years, when each panelist gave a presentation. Instead, questions were posed in advance to the EDAC membership and the CEOs. Sperling then compared the answers from EDAC members and the answers from the CEOs, and based his questions on those answers.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the panel discussion.

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